Recently got an opportunity to watch the current craze "Slumdog Millionaire". First of all let me have the pleasure of congratulating the entire cast and crew for making waves in "Hollywood" and winning oscars.
I am neither a film critic nor a trident wielding nationalist. But with the senses of an ordinary Indian citizen I found the film "Offending" to say the least.
Let me first delve into the reasons for this film becoming such a huge hit.
The westerners are a developed lot. Of course they have achieved success and prosperity on their own and I truly appreciate that. But sadly, they don't have something which we have in abundance: "poverty". So whenever they want to see it they turn towards India with unrepentant hope and obscene excitement.
Slumdog....has all the masala of a poverty flick. It shows India in the way the westerners want 2 see. A slum boy in deep shit(sic), inefficient call centre employees, exploited children getting trained to become beggars,communal violence, rude policemen, nude children.Rope in a love story mired in suffering and the picture becomes complete. It is slum tourism at its best....or perhaps worst.More aptly it can be called a "Poverty Porn".
All the hoopla about "Slumdog...." being an "ode to life" and it representing hope in the times of economic despair is simply rubbish. It does shows hope, but quite an unrealistic one. I felt like this was a way to ward off any negative impression about this film.
Indian film industry has made a few better films if not all. But, they were not considered for Oscar coz
1. they were not sent by the Indian Govt.
2. those which have been sent didn't show what the jury wanted to see......
Questions raised are many:
Do we need an Oscar to know whether our artists are good enough? It smacks of our defeatist mentality which makes us yearn for foreign recognition.
Do we need a "Danny Boyle" to extract an Oscar winning performance from Indian artists?
I know I'm against the popular perception about this film but I am entitled to my own view.
From the "Land of snake charmers" India has become the "Land of Slumdogs"........and we are celebrating!!!
2 comments:
well....i read this post....and since im a nationalist i would like to critically comment on it. I have an opinion that any person has the right to sell whatever he wants. the reason he sells something is either because the subject is in demand as the author states or people are simply curious about the worlds most crowded nation. as a nationalist i cerainly beleive the film was well made and pointed out the fragile system and chaos in the indian way of life. more than the fact that a boy makes a million grand it is about how a boy journeys around saving his companion. just like LOTR was not about the ring but was about fellowship and titanic was not about sex but was about a freaking iceberg striking the ship we chould understand the state of our nation. Our nation has gone to the dogs. it is inevitable now. It requires many hands and minds to work together for saving india. every day we create hundreds of slums in india just because of our complex and yet impossible system... help the country instead of running away from it just for comfort....
even though i agree with the author that inidan artists need not be gud only if they have an oscar..it is important to know that today america is the boss.... and getting world recognistion is a recognition too....the problem is, we cry foul even when we have national awards....we cry politics when ekalavya wins the award....yes let us say politics made it win...so how gud are indian awards?? how gud is any award in such a case???
let us not look at the fallacies in places which are always in conflict..this generation requires focus.... not neutrality....every revoltion has a purpose... its not wrong to be nationalistic
india is the only place we can call ours...lets preserve it...
lets learn from our mistaks..lets start our small solutions....lets make ourselves proud
U have asked two fundamental questions, was the film "offending" or not, and whether we need the oscars for "recognition"?
The Book Q & A hit the stands around October 2007. I went through the book last ear, January and found the book to be quite gripping, quite unpredictable, easy to comprehend and a book which accentuated the roles of effort/hard work and luck for the success or the lack of it for a person.
It was gripping because from the first sentence of the story( I am arrested for winning a game show) till the last chapter, never at any point of time do you wish to keep the book away.
It was unpredictable because you always wanted to know what will be the next question and under what circumstances the protagonist would have found a clue to the answer.
It was easy to understand because the author refrained from using too many jargons and kept it simple and lucid.
Finally it demonstrated the role luck and effort plays in the success of a person. No person can achieve anything in this world without the contribution ( though it may be very meagre one) of the other. Had Jalal not shown the zeal to rise up again and again he would not have been a "slumdog", a chaiwalla, a tourist guide, a call centre person etc.. all in the same life. He wanted to grow, change his life and luck favoured the brave!! He was also lucky at the same time or else how could the 15 questions all linked to some or the other instances of his life. Or for that matter how could hae he run out of clutches of goons converting children into beggars. There were several moments in the book which highlighted these two aspects, only thing is one has to look for them.
Danny boyle made a good film out of this book, something which Ron Howard was not able to do wrt The Da Vinci Code. The film had enough in it to hold even those who had read the book. It was'nt a replica of the book and the picturization was the territory of the director, which He explored well.If one's aim is to look for loopholes, there would be enough in any creation of a artist.
We need to assess an art independently of the impact it would have on others. If it appeals to us, we must appreciate it. If it antagonizes us, we must condemn it. But to criticize a film solely with the thought that what others( westerners) would think about it, is not that praiseworthy an idea.
The film shows about poverty, can we deny its existence? The film shows about child beggars, are we free of it? The film depicts fake tourist guides, don't we have any? Its not a matter of embarrassment but a matter of introspection as to how we individual can make a change so that in future others dont have a chance to depict these.
The point you made about oscars is a valid one. We Indians have been quite obsessed about a getting a recognition from the world( west). Amartya Sen was not recognized for his work while he was here, but after getting a Nobel Prize we were singing paens about him. Jai Ho is not the best creation of A R Rahman/Gulzar, but after the oscars for Rahman, we have been so much crazy about this song that even Rahman must be wondering about the impacts of Oscars!!! If a thing is good, it remains good whether it gets recognition from the Oscars or not. Afterall Oscars is nothing but American movie academy awards, meant for American Films. Our obsession with it defies logic.
Post a Comment