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.
