One of my close friends always moving in Finland, Portugal and Angola liked the film and said that it is very expressive! It should be mandatory for any person that talks about crises!
It was never a good film. You need to be born an Indian and to have stayed in this country to understand what I am saying. It has been made for the Western audience, which loved and lapped up what has been shown happening in the slums of Mumbai.
Indian poverty sells like hot cakes. The music of AR Rehman has been at its worst, the Oscar notwithstanding. We have heard his best. But the bitter truth has always remained that to get international recognition this is the only way out. An English film which the American audience understands and loves to watch. Period.
I would like our readers, wherever they are, to tell us what they think about the film. The good thing about agreeing to disagree is that you learn so much.
I would like our readers, wherever they are, to tell us what they think about the film. The good thing about agreeing to disagree is that you learn so much.
2 comments:
One of my friends, Sandeep Rajput says this.
I have not watched Slumdog Millionaire and probably will not do so. I grew up right next to a slum, in an area where law and order was not always present. It is too painful to watch that background painted rosy all over with hope.
A very good friend of mine had a love-hate relationship with his parents during his teens. After graduating he started a job 500 km away and then realized he missed his parents. He wanted to have a "one-way" curtain to his parents where he could remove it and interact with his parents and then draw it when done. That appears to be the reaction of the rich to the poor and it's not an Indian thing, it's a worldwide thing.
On that front, consider watching "Rosetta", a Belgian Movie that won a big prize (can't remember which) in 1997. It is also a grueling portrayal of poverty. Or consider the French movie "The Infant" or even better, watch the Danish movie "The Ox". Perhaps the best is to watch "Ladri di Bicicletti" from 1948 if I remember correctly. Grapes of Wrath comes to mind as an American classic (novel and movie).
Of course, we have the Apu Series. Lots of people have made movies about hunger and poverty, not least of them communists and marxists!
SM has been a subject of discussion among a variety of people in India and the Indian diaspora. Some film critics have responded positively to the film. At the same time, others objected to issues such as Jamal's use of British English or the fact that much better films made by Indian filmmakers right from Satyajit Ray who made the Apu Trilogy have not received equal recognition. A few notable filmmakers such as Aamir Khan and Priyadarshan have been critical of the film. Author and critic Salman Rushdie argues that it has "a patently ridiculous conceit."
SM been subjected to a lot of criticisms regarding how it portrays Indian society and the alleged exploitation of some of the actors. Following its release, it faced criticism that the film fuels Western stereotypes about poverty in India and that it peddles "poverty porn". It is a grim depiction of slum dwellers and violated their human rights. Vamsee Juluri, author and Professor of Media Studies at the University of San Francisco, identifies Indophobic and postcolonial/neocolonial discourse used in the film to attack and demonize Indians as "barbarians" and "savages", and that the only Indian portrayed positively in the film has a British accent.
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