Why Slumdog Millionaire must win the Oscar Best Picture!?

1. It is uplifiting. It is what a movie must be all about. It inspires. It entertains. It makes you feel good about living despite the stink and the eyesores. It affirms that life will always be good - at least for those who care to appreciate it.

2. It depicts poverty at its finest. Or at its best form. Terrible, scary, smelly, and ultimately unfair.

3. It breaks your heart without being overly sentimental. You cry not because you feel the pain. You cry because you celebrate Jamal and Latika's triumph.

4. The young Jamal, Salim and Latika are reincarnations of the characters of Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali. It is as if they are not acting. They are just doing what they do best - being children.

5. The screenplay is flawless. It is very original. It makes me wonder why I cannot pen something as wondrous. Perhaps, I am just reading too many books or watching too many movies that any twist and turn produced by my brain is anything but original.

6. The ensemble is terrific. Of course, you don't have to wonder why Frieda Pinto is not running against Kate Winslet or Dev Patel breaking the waves of Sean Penn or Madhur Mittal making himself a worthy opponent to Philip Seymour Hoffman. Because they are relatively new - which it makes them more wonderful - because they manage to still be terrific despite their new-ness.

7. It is both modern and classic. Modern because of the visuals and the graphics. But at heart, it remains a classic. There is adversity. There is triumph. There is searching. There is finding. There is an underdog. The underdog fights back. The underdog wins. It is a fairy tale minus the castles and the armours.

8. The cinematography and the editing are just amazing. Whoever is behind the camera and whoever you are in the cutting room, God bless you guys.

9. It never sodomizes age-old crimes and misdemeanors - prostitution, child labor, religious wars, organized crimes. It never wallows in the evils of society. Slumdog is all about survival. It submerges itself in the excrements not because the excrements provide more drama, but because it is only through the excrements that it could free itself from its own mess.

10. Its dance ensemble during the credits reminds me of 80's Pinoy movies wherein characters suddenly break into a song and dance repertoire. But it is not baduy at all. The filmakers know that Slumdog viewers will be in high spirits after watching their movie. They extended themselves by giving us a soundtrack of their resounding success!