Film review

Slumdog Millionaire

Wats going on with the British film, Slumdog Millionaire? Media seems to celebrate every International recognition that the film adds on to its credit and the Indian intelligentsia seems to throw strong criticisms in the air. Arindham Chaudhuri cries “Don’t see SDM. It sucks! A phony poseur that has been made only to mock India for the viewing pleasure of the First world.”

As an enthusiast of World Cinema, I too am touched upon by the huge appreciations and poignant criticisms that SDM receives. I watched the movie and love its narrative strategy. Every question shot in the Millionaire game is substantiated by living realities experiences. I am really dumbfounded watching the Mumbai slums in its raw form! No wonder. Earlier, I used to recognize the Bombay city during my train journeys to Delhi by those huge piles of wastes dumped near the Railway tracks. Can’t Imagine how Dharavi could be in real…Don’t hesitate; it is one of the post modern metropolitan cities in India!! One can never hide this “other face” of Mumbai as revealed in SDM.

Mumbai is not the only city bearing human wastes and other dirt in such a pathetic manner. Many such areas and issues in the whole world need to be exposed further, but with more authenticity by the first hand experienced people. This is the point where problematic regarding the film arise…it is the perspective that matters and not the actual situations…Mumbaikar’s will definitely get hurt witnessing this brutal face of their city in the International Screen…But how do we negate the existence of those slums, open air lavatories, criminality, poverty, child exploitation, under aged sex working, large scale begging businesses, blinding to become more fit as beggars, underworld and the like. All these certainly reinforce an inerasable face of this democratic society. One cannot just shut her/his eyes and make the world dark when the film is inscribing the lives of three youngsters who belong to the so called deprived section of Indian population. These slum dwellers have all chance to grow up into criminals breathing, eating, sleeping, shitting, living on trash heaps.

Personally I was deeply moved by certain specific moments depicted in the film. How can I forget the brightness that lits up the slum kids face when he sees a lot of children playing in a tidy, organized space? The vulnerability of the city is captured in its raw form, when the kids run for miles n miles, through the wastes dumped on the streets of Dharavi. One can see a dog there in the midst of those trash piles. Hey, that is the actual slum dog. Please don’t mistake it with humans. The title sounds very offensive and derogatory whatever be the explanation film crew gives for it.

The slum kid’s transition into a neat and clean well mannered chaywalla seems to be a little unconvincing. The politics involved in the Question Answer game are worth noticing. The question on National Emblem of India is left unanswered and the inspector says even my five years old daughter can answer this. It speaks volumes on many things…About the nation… About the outsider’s perspective…About the colonial mind revealing how dependent Indian youngsters are on dollars rather than rupee, and so on… About how young minds are structured…About how Indian flags become so important to street children only during the republic day

SDM sells the negativities of India. The problem is in fact the British presence. The politics and the intention behind the outsider to portray a so called negative, but very much existent face of metropolitan India. Why didn’t those British see the quite vibrant fashionable modern face of India so far? Does it add on to the visual pleasure of the Westerners? Is that one among the reasons why SDM is getting so much recognition outside India? An outsiders’ depiction can never be authentic. And can we say that the awards and recognition celebrate the voyeuristic pleasure of the colonizer. The query here is how does one justify Vikas Swarup’s novel. I haven’t read Q and A so I am not able to compare and give a justification behind the adaptation as of now. Any way awards matter least. Indian films haven’t got any Oscar recognition yet. I guess Hollywood hasn't taken any seriousness on our films except that of Satyajit Ray. This doesn’t mean that there were no worthy films in India. We have to think about international awards and their politics in depth.

Rahman's music hit the whole world with "Jai Ho". The song when delivered in English was incomprehensible and doesnt speak anything of Mumbai in its tone. "Ring Ring Ringa," influenced by " Choli ke peeche" is striking.

She

Life 1
She is advised to take treatment for depression. She is stubborn and becomes hysteric when questioned. “Who defines me as depressed? How can a male doctor treat me unless he becomes a woman and lives my life?” She is branded outspoken

Life 2
She consumed sleeping pills and committed suicide leaving her three months old baby to none. People now say that she was depressed after she left her parents to lead a life with her lover. It seems she struggled. Lover, Parents, Relatives, Friends remained aloof. Total isolation.

Life 3
She is nowhere. She stands puzzled and perplexed in the midst of her mom and dad who curse her for being mysterious. After an arranged marriage she ran away from her first husband without even living with him for a day. Now her so called imbalanced mind is striving hard to cope up with her second husband, who taunts her every now and then. He shouts at her in crowd “If you were bold enough you would have committed suicide” Her two years old daughter learns new lessons of depression witnessing her mom’s loneliness and helplessness; dad’s overpowering nature; and grandparent’s detachment.

Life 4
She is totally lost amidst the chaos witnessing suicides of near and dears. But, she feels attached to her dead sisters. With broken heart she shrinks within the four walls of her bedroom, which any time can be inspected by her mom-in-law. She clings to that old walkman to escape from the silence that engulfs her life. Those bundles of books shifted from her hostel rooms bear the burden of those irretrievable pleasant past. “A woman should have money and a room of one’s own.” (Virginia Woolf A Room of One’s Own)

Life 5
She had alcohol for the first time in her life. It was a weak revenge. She stole the Chivas Regal from her husband’s collection. She fails to trace out the innocence behind those lengthy phone calls that her husband shared with his girl friend. “Is emotional infidelity more dangerous than physical infidelity as Rajath Kapoor once mentioned in Lounge?”

Conclusion:
She researches on how life situations and culture generate depression in women. She found out that women engage in the processes of self-alienation in their attempt to live up to the societal and familial expectations. Key elements of depression according to her are inhibition of activity, inhibition of anger, and low self-esteem. She emphasizes that married women in particular are more prone to develop depression.