The other side of Slumdog Millionaire
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KR Ravi | Feb 06, 2009
The film Slumdog Millionaire has aroused strong emotions in both India and the U.S.
Let me start with India.
Amitabh started it all with his blog in which he despaired at the film showing the dark underbelly of India, a tradition that goes back to Satyajit Ray. The star said that in contrast to this ‘poverty porn’ [my words not his] he found much admiration for the Bollywood fare that is often derided as ‘masala’. He writes that crowds throng the cinema halls in many parts of the world where typical Bollywood films are premiered and shown. Hence he took exception to films like Slumdog Millionaire which draw attention to our poverty.
The star’s comments were followed by an avalanche of responses for and against his views. Those who did not agree with him said that poverty was a reality in India and one cannot deny this. Some slum dwellers took exception to being called ‘dogs’.
I have always felt that in order to form a considered opinion there are a few requirements of which the following are critical:
• delay forming opinions till emotions have run their full course
• obtain full facts on the topic
• seek the opinions of all the affected parties.
I did just that and waited for the dust to settle, for sanity to prevail and for the director’s sake I also waited to see what Americans had to say since the Oscars – which many of us are eagerly waiting for – are based in the U.S.
‘Time’ magazine which to some extent reflects American public opinion has a few interesting things to say about the film.
The director Boyle says that the title of the film was not a reference to the canine species at all. It was not a derogatory reference to slum people. It was simply a combination of ‘slum’ and ‘underdog’. Hence came the word ‘slumdog’!
As for poverty American audiences see the story as one of a small guy making it big, of the underdog [again no canine implications] fighting great odds, of the rags to riches phenomena – these are all values dear to and at the heart of the great American dream. Hence the audiences saw their dreams being played by a slum dweller from India. At this time of serious economic crisis the theme struck a chord. It is not that American audiences saw the film like voyeurs to poverty in India, as some have alleged – they know enough about it without having to pay hard earned dollars for it.
Film critics in the U. S have for years expressed dismay that a country as talented as India does not make movies that have a universal appeal. Shockingly countries like Turkey, Iran, and Poland – which we in India do not have in our periphery of consideration, cinematically speaking, have won critical acclaim in the west simply because they dealt with human experiences that anyone can relate to. I believe this is a fair view.
Some of my Indian friends say that audiences in the West must learn to accept Indian films at our terms – meaning that the west must accept the song and dance escapist movies that we make. I ask them why do not the Bollywood audiences accept a Tamil or Malayalam film [with subtitles] at THEIR terms? My understanding is that Bollywood audiences want to see films with a North Indian cultural ambience. I have no complaints with this because most of us cannot empathise with people with different cultural sensibilities. All I ask is that we ought to agree that western audiences are even more understanding of Indian cinema than Bollywood audiences are of South Indian cinema. The west does not say that Indians ought to make films with American or western sensibilities in mind. They simply ask that if we aspire to win an Oscar we stand a better chance of winning one if we make films with a UNIVERSAL APPEAL not necessarily with a western appeal. Like Turkey and Iran!
What is universal about Slumdog Millionaire?
Today Americans appreciate India better than ever before. They respect us and marvel at our development, at our love of democracy, of our secularism, and our innate genius. However flawed we may be we are a better bet for the future than many of our neighbours.
Slumdog Millionaire is our answer to the west that we also want the underdog to become the top dog. It stands to reason that people everywhere have sympathy for the underdog and are in awe of the small guy who makes it big.
Incidentally director Boyle has made two films earlier with the same theme – of the small guy making it big. He loves the small guy. This shows in his forays into a slum in Juhu in Mumbai and to Dharavi where he spent many months researching for the film.
He says that when he asked many youngsters if they would, given a chance to act in his film, try to copy Amitabh or Shahrukh Khan, they replied “We will act the way you want us to.” He adds that he was touched by the innocence of these kids when many of us would any day model ourselves and imitate these stars.
As for poverty the TIME correspondent asked a slum dweller if he felt embarrassed at poverty being shown in the film. The poor man replied “It is the rich who are embarrassed at showcasing poverty. For us it is a reality and we have no objection to its portrayal.”
Are we, the middle class, behaving like ostriches fooling ourselves into believing that something that we do not see does not exist?
By the way I wonder how many of you have noticed that many people north of the Vindhyas seem to think that Indian cinema is the same as Bollywood. Talk of the west ignoring Indian mainstream cinema!
Ironically Boyle himself was an underdog. There were no takers for Slumdog Millionaire. He, out of despair, almost decided to distribute it in DVD format since no distributor wanted to ‘risk’ taking it up. By sheer luck Warner took it up with fears about the fate of the film. The rest is history. Boyle the underdog is now the toast of the cinema world.
My friend Alphonso says that his pet dog Fifi is upset at the way Bollywood insults dogs. Fifi does not like the villain being compared to a dog.
“The day is not far,” barks Fifi, “when we dogs will make a film in which the hero dog will tell the villain dog – insaan kameene main tera khoon pee jaoonga!”
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K.R. Ravi is South Asia’s first Dr.Edward De Bono certified public trainer in lateral thinking, and a pioneer in spreading lateral thinking in the Indian corporate sector. For more details, visit http://www.krravi.com or contact him at createravi@hotmail.com.
Filed Under: Miscellaneous
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I think we, Indians lack little bit of humour and get hurt too fast, even when others dont mean it.
In my workplace, in so many setups, people take a dig at each other, and people take very lightly (this is in the US). Another example is Jay Leno’s show or Dave Letterman, they make fun of everyone all the time, they even make fun of everyone’s accents. They very well know, that US is built by immigrants, with various language barriers, accents etc, and everyone takes it light. I remember, Jay making fun of Arnold’s comments and accent, right before Arnold walked as his guest, and they both were talking about it and laughed it out.
So I think you are right, people watched this movie, for how a slum guy, can be successful, and the situations associated with it, and do not name India as country of slums. It is we, who did not do anything about those same slums, that we are worried about, keep whining about it.
Chill out India.
Loved it.
Arun
Poverty in India is not a new issue even for us Indians. But the way poverty is portrayed in the name of Art hurts most.
Ironically, if you call a crooked man crooked he is angry, similar a lame man if called lame he runs after you for hitting, whatever be the disability; even if it is present creates anger.
It is the person who is speaking and the intention with what he is speaking determines the response. Westerners in general behaves autocratically considering everybody except them as inferior.
Even if they adopt you because they cannot avoid you, still deep in their heart they have this feeling of superiority. They can’t withstand anybody being better then them hence they say detrogatory words or comments in a lighter vein. So that they hurt you and still you don’t take any offence(pun intended)
Nice article Ravi!
i think it is an average movie…with some obvious flaws as well..i’ve seen many bollywood movies that are much better.. TZP for one is a gazillion times better movie than SM!
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I couldn’t watch the movie for more than ten minutes. The
wholemovie struck me as being highly unrealistic, and this has nothing to do with the depiction of poverty. No one in Mumbai would have laughed at a chai wallah, and no host would crack a joke like that. The dazed look of Jamal when he said “I knew the answers” was so jeuvenile, that I just stopped watching just there.Although the movie focussed more on slums and the downtrodden, which is also a reality in India and I felt it was not the right projection of India especially since this film will be watched by audiences across the globe, I still loved the movie.
The basic premise of the movie which revolves around a person from a slum, making it big on his own steam without any benefactors has universal relevance. I think it gives all underprivileged people the hope that even they can succeed despite of all odds. It reaffirms the faith of the people in the power of the human spirit. And that’s what I loved about the movie.
very nicely interpreted … Ravi
Excellent article. I request people (be it Amitab or whoever) who are disappointed to see the poverty shown in this movie should invest their money to eradicate poverty. They can adopt those slums and build nice houses, medical centers, schools etc. It’s easy to deny the reality. They should o have guts to do something like this than accumulating black money for their future generations.
That is a nice view point. However I respectfully disagree about comments on North Indians not accepting South Indian movies the way they are. How do you think there are so many remakes:) ? And why generalize something so brazenly? Individuals make the country – regions do not..
More than poverty issues what bother most at such times is that Indians start segregating themselves stressing their personal agendas and grievances. We often fail to portray a non regional, non religious unbiased front- and that is an unfortunate fact.
-all accepting Bombayite
Thank you for this article.
I have watch the movie and found myself quite emotional at the end. It is nothing more than a modern fairy-tale with a glimpse of the reality – poverty – that actually affects not only India but more than half of this Earth.
I didn’t even try to compare the movie to Bollywood genre, which I happen to like and enjoy quite a lot. Millionaire is a British movie settled in India, with a UK director who is trying to build a momentum on the other side of the world, through some tipically western topics – such as the American dream, the good vs. the bad, TV shows and their effect on society.
On the other hand, Bollywood is rooted as the India movie Mecca, which is entitled and highly capable of portraying the reality of the country at its best.
Still, my analysis is not geographical nor political but I must say that I did enjoy the movie and left the theatre with a smile. And it won the Academy Award for best movie just last night, along with 7 more awards… Not bad!
I’m hoping that folks will give “people in the West” more credit than what some critics have written. I love all kinds of films — including those made in India (http://www.ddmcd.com/movies/category/indian) — and my reaction on seeing Slumdog” was that it displayed the power and potential of India in an wonderfully involving and entertaining way. Home cultures have always complained about negative portrayals, a good example being 1969′s “Midnight Cowboy” which displayed poverty and despair in New York City in (for the times) incredibly graphic terms.
The fact that this movie has generated so much of interest and debate just goes to show what a great movie it really is. While some would choose to mope over other Indian movies which they feel are far more deserving of such international acclaim, and tie the success of Slumdog Millionaire to the fact that “a white man was behind it”, I choose to look at the fact that this movie not only beat other movies made by “the white man” like Benjamin Button, Frost Nixon, Milk and Revolutionary Road at the recent Oscars, but it has also reached out across cultural and geographical boundaries to truly connect with its viewers.
That said, can we all just let Slumdog Millionaire take its Oscars (eight to be exact) and move on??
Kudos! Good one!
To be very honest, I saw a lot of great movies from the Indian language Malayalam; they are quite stunning in terms of story and presentation. I am not sure how they are seen in your country. To us in Europe (Swiss where I come from), some of them are purely masterclass. Arent they shown in India? Or is it that the langauage is not accessible to hindi (or are they different)?
While we are on slumdog, there was a movie named karutha pakshikal. I dont know the director and actors. That movie (2006) also talks about a semi slum family and the presentation was excellent. No bollywood drama, but it missed the mainstream audience I guess. To me, that was better than slumdog (of course slumdog was brilliant)
So true Ravi
Interestingly-our sense of a great movie ends at TZP-I enjoyed it too-so …
But what was in it to make it a world class movie?
and how many Indians really watch the classic and the “art” movies?
We have a great audience in the West and even if there were no sum dog or any dog around-they arent sitting there thinking we are a wonderful,rich nation.Lets accept and celebrate the fact that we are an emotional,culturally and historically insensitive nation,with even better callousnes to the weaker sections of the society and indiffferent to many things except money and the power that comes with it and Greed.
We showcase enough poverty even in our travel websites !!So lets all relax.
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