Rooting for the Slum(Under)dog

Underdog : A participant in a fight, conflict, or game who is not expected to win.

Ever wonder why most of us root for the underdog, is it because those who are viewed as disadvantaged arouse our sense of fairness and justice. Its also true that we tend to believe that underdogs put forth more effort than top-dogs.We associate our selves with the underdog because of our inner urge to succeed against all odds, it's almost like rooting for ourselves.

In one study using the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, the participants were given the same essay about the history of the area, but with different maps to reference — one showing Palestine as smaller than Israel (and thus, the underdog) and the other showing Israel as smaller. No matter what scenario the participants were presented with, they consistently favored the underdog to win.

US President 'elect' Barack Obama a self-professed underdog maintained that he was the underdog, throughout the Democratic Presidential primaries against Hillary Clinton, until he became the front runner for the Presidential race itself. Then it was John McCain who took over the underdog status just before the polls in November last year. McCain said in one of his rallies in October when Obama was way ahead of him in most of the opinion polls- "I love being the underdog. You know, every time that I've gotten ahead, somehow I've messed it up". Was this his last attempt to have a fighting chance in a lost battle by way of appealing to the voters reminding them that now he and not Obama was the underdog.

Many of us including me who followed the Bigg Boss show on television last year supported the winner Ashutosh Kaushik, whose only claim to fame was his surprise win in MTV. Roadies 5.0. Ashutosh a 'Dhaba' owner from Saharanpur in western Uttarpradesh became an overnight celebrity winning nearly Rs. 1 Crore (~ $250,000/-) in prize money as the winner of Bigg Boss. He played his small town underdog image to the hilt during the show appealing to the aam janta to vote for him, and they did as we all know now. His onscreen chemistry with a former miss world also would have drawn audiences towards him who saw someone who was one of them winning the heart of a celebrity.

I recently watched "Slumdog Millionaire" an amazing tale of triumph of the underdog against a society which is not able to believe that a lowly "Chaiwaala" from the gutters of Mumbai's Slums can know all the answers to 'Who wants to be a Millionaire'.The movie however is much more than just the story of an underdog and the television game show.

Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) teams up with Co-director Loveleen Tandan and Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy who wrote Slumdog Millionaire with the novel 'Q & A' by Vikas Swarup as the premise to mount a truly impressive undertaking with masterful storytelling finesse.Brutal, Dark, heartbreaking and madly romantic this movie is a celebration of the Indian spirit with some great performances from all characters especially the amateur young actors. The chase sequences in the Mumbai slums and the teenage gangsters remind you of some of the scenes in 'City of God', theres even a touch of Dickens' Oliver Twist in some of the characterisations. 

The music score by A.R Rehman is sensational to say the least. O..Saya and Jai ho are simply superb. Overall a great movie. 

This reminds me of one instance from class 12th when I was representing my class in the intra school quiz competition. I remember somehow managing to get into the team, answering some impromptu questions my class teacher threw at me and convincing him that I was good enough to be part of the quiz team. On the day of the quiz, no one from the other teams gave us a chance as we were amateurs as compared to some of the participants from other classes who had represented the school in many inter school competitions. The look on the faces of the other teams was one of surprise and disbelief when we kept hitting the buzzer and got all the questions right. It felt great winning that quiz, that too with a huge margin, its one of the most cherished memories I have from School. 

The underdog had won again !!