Channel 4 – in my humble opinion the UK´s top terrestrial TV station offers a diverse and more off-beat menu to the discerning viewer as well as collaborating with the film industry – i may be somewhat bias but the independent UK movie scene have produced tens of classic movies with the likes of the award-winning Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotters, Slumdog Millionnaire) just one of the benefactors.
Channel 4 takes a successful late 30s/early 40s 3nd generation multi-millionaire Indian businesswoman leading a suburban existence in Derby in central England, and flies Sema Sharma out to Mumbai and introduces her to the largest slum in this incredible city.
Sema is offering tens of thousand pounds hard cash to a needy cause. She goes “under-cover” posing as a potential aid worker to decide which cause will gain offer the most benefit from her donation.
Thus Sema moves out of her Bourgeois existence into a one bedroom bedsit which didn´t look dissimilar to my Ganj bedsit. So she is in tears from Day 1 and continue for the rest of her two week stay.
Sema sees one heart-wrenching scenario to the next, some individuals and some organisations. She struggles to deal with her dilemma and the camera gets in close.
Unable to select just one she spreads her wealth around and split-loads her money. The lucky winners includes a cresh for young kids, a bus school that services the slum areas, a mother trying to raise money for her daughters´ dowries and a homeless man and his family from Rajasthan.
Classic viewing for India-philes like myself
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