I first saw this movie a few days before it won several golden globes. I did not like what i saw. As a matter of fact, some of the scenes were so nauseating that they were repulsive. My first thoughts were....Oh my God, not again, this can not be happening in 21st century, the western movie makers indulging in india bashing, focussing only on it's poverty, its rope tricks and the Taj Mahal, as they used to do in 50s and 60s.
So when it won so many golden globes and won Oscar nominations i was surprised. i wondered if i was wrong in my first assessment. I said to my self..." OK, i will see it once again with a open mind and objectively". I watched the movie a second time and realized that my first assessment was wrong---- IT WAS NOT JUST TRASH, IT WAS UTTER TRASH.
Why do i say that??
1)Let us start with the title.....SLUMDOG MILLIONNAIRE. In india of today we call the people who live in slums slumdwellers not slumdogs. Calling someone a dog is a big insult and abuse. Remember the dialogues of Dharmendra in umpteen films when he cries out loud while bashing crooks and criminals " kutte, my tera khoon peoonga...". (for my western friends, kutta is dog).
When Harbhajan singh reportedly called Andrew Symmonds a monkey everyone called him a racist, they were after his blood and he was fined and suspended. BCCI had to bail him out and rescue him. But if you call the slum living boy a DOG it is not racist ???????????
People are asking a simple question " why not a SLUM BOY MILLIONNAIRE ? Why the DOG?
Not answered till date satisfactorily.
I am surprised our Neta log have not reacted to this racist slurr? Ihave read somewhere that P.Chidamabaram, our home minister praised Slumdog. I would like to ask him if he had seen the movie and his prescription for rags to riches is GAMESHOWS.
2) The movie has several revolting scenes--- let us take the worst one. The boy literally wades through SHIT and fully covered from head to toe in SHIT he gets the autograph of Amitabh Bachan. Do you think boys in india (slumdwellers or others) will wade through shit to get an autograph of AB or SRK ?? Many such visuals were revolting.
3) What is the message of this movie ? That there is something called Destiny and you beat all odds to get from rags to riches. So how do you do it ? Not through hardwork or brillinace etc. but through a GAMESHOW (KBC like) where all the questions are answered based on the boy's various experiences in his young life. OMG, how lucly can you get that a computer generates only such queations that you can answer ALL of them based on your limited experiences.
If the idea is to show the rags to riches success, several movies have done it so well in the past. I readily recall the Amitabh starrer "Muqaddar ka Sikandar" ( Master of Destiny) where it was done so well. I entirly agree with Priyadarshini that a Maniratnam would have made this SDM into a fine movie (recall Yuva).
4) This movie is also an insult to the indian media. Here is a young boy doing well round after round in a KBC and a couple of policemen arrest him and subject him to a third degree to find out if he is cheating or how he is able to answer. Do you think the indian news channels ever hungry would let go a story like that???? No way. You would have the whole lot of them at the police station in a jiffy. And the Human rights people too. Oh my God , David (hope i got the name right) you do not know my india of today.
5) I am as happy as you are that our mastero AR Rehman wona golden globe for his music in SDM. My friends say that he was better in several other movies and i agree. Just recall "Lagan" which was also nominated for Oscars. It had such wonderful music by Rehman. Of course, Lagan couldn't win a Oscar. They said it was too long, too indian, too much about cricket etc, etc , etc. Bla, bla.bla..... The british were shown defeated by a ragtag bunch of village cricketers. How can that be??????
So, folks, i sincerely hope that people back home trash this movie and give it the treatment it deserves. I hope the indian media stops going into raptures on the awards won by this movie and expose it for what it is. The CRITICS may rant and rave about it but i am just a 'aam aadmi'.
Finally, i pray that it does not win an Oscar because it does not deserve one.
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Go dad!! Love your analysis. I have not seen this movie yet and after your comments, I probably dont want to!
ReplyDeletethat was a fantastic presentation and analysis of the issue. ALL Indians should vehemently condemn the movie. I was shocked beyond words to read about the scene where the slum - dwelling boy wades thro shit, just to get an autograph of a filmstar! We should be ashamed that our 'great' leaders are short of words in praising this movie, rather than uniting as a single force in condemning the same. In addition, i understand the movie glorifies relying on luck to become wealthy, rather than emphasising on hard work. Dad, its a great eye - opening analysis!
ReplyDeleteNot to be too critical, but I had already voiced my opinion on paniit group.
ReplyDeleteFor point 1. I am not sure how racism is coming in here. The title does not comment against any race, nor is it portraying Indians as Dogs. It is a dramatization of a situation. And of course the point that we are afraid to discuss is whether one likes it or not we have a divide between the haves and have nots in India. Leave the filthy rich, even a middle class person would not think of a begger as another human being. All kinds of words are used to describe them in our day to day language (I do not want to restate them here)
For point 2, I believe unless one has really an experience in the slums of mumbai we cannot generalize such a statement. I actually thought it just showed the spirit of the young boy who at any cost wanted an autograph of AB. Coming to the real life, I know that such toilets are definitely there in Dharavi... Whether one will really jump into it or not will depend on one's desperation.
I think the movie did not depict that only by luck you will win. It depicted that only by being truthful one will win. Despite all odds, the hero always wanted to be truthful. Is that not a nice moral? Why do we want to only cite the negative side.
4) This point I agree. But its a movie afterall. I am pretty sure the media would have jumped on it. But, maybe someone can escape the media for a few hours. Its not really that impossible, although I would give a lower odds to such a situation.
5) Lagaan was a useless movie and did not deserve an oscar nomination in the first place. This is purely my opinion and I am definitely not saying this because so many of you are opposed to SDM. It was my real opinion when I saw that movie long ago. It bent all the rules of Cricket just to make the rag tag team win and I just took the culprit as over dramatization to make it filmy.
In contrast Eklavya (AB's movie) was also nominated for an Oscar and I think that was a much better movie (with its own share of mistakes if one does want to call them that and it is again a matter of opinion)
I agree with Krishna, and not sure if anyone here has seen madhur bhandarkar's TRAFFIC SIGNAL......i bet u love that move, and dont have a blog on its name.....what an analysis!!!!
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