[Reader-list] Don’t see “Slumdog Millionaire”. It sucks!

[Pawan Durani]

  Don't see "Slumdog Millionaire". It
sucks!<http://arindamchaudhuri.blogspot.com/2009/01/dont-see-slumdog-millionaire-it-sucks.html>
 A phony poseur that has been made only to mock India for the viewing
pleasure of the First World!!

The emperor's new clothes! That's "Slumdog Millionaire" for you… Five
minutes into this celebrated patchwork of illogical clichés and you are
struck by the jarring dialogues. The cumbersome delivery in a language which
doesn't come naturally to most of the actors sounds like someone scratching
on walls with one's finger nails; it ruins the possibility of a connection…
Had this film been made by an Indian director, it would've been trashed as a
rotting old hat, which literally stands out only because of its stench, but
since the man making it happens to be from the West, we're all left
celebrating the emperor's new clothes. The film borrows an undoubtedly
interesting narrative style – from films like "City of God" – but then uses
it to weave in a collection of clichés from the Third World's underbelly for
the viewing pleasure of a First World audience. The real slumdog in the
movie is not the main protagonist but India as a whole… The makers and those
celebrating this movie's hard-to-spot brilliance are actually serving up
India as the accidental millionaire, which in fact happens to be a slumdog…
and like shameless fools we are gloating over its success without realising
that it makes a caricature out of India.

The film does not have the sincerity and honesty of a "Salaam Bombay" or a
"City of Joy" and nor does this slime covered fairy tale have the integrity
or the rootedness of the above mentioned scripts, or even a "Shantaram" for
that matter; the soundtrack and the performance of the child actors are the
only bits in the film which live up to the hype. The real slumdogs who've
hit the jackpot after wallowing in acres of human waste are the makers of
this film who are now raking in millions while those court jesters who've
critiqued the film and showered tributes and awards need to ask themselves
why, scores of years after our independence, they still feel the need to
suck up to the gora sahibs. It's not a question of xenophobia… it's
definitely a well cinematographed film… but the film has no soul, especially
after little Jamal has jumped off the train and become a teenager… The rest
of the film is just a modern version of the West's view of India where
slums, slumdogs and Bollywoodian clichés have replaced the elephants and
snake charmers. It's a well made caricature of a country and a caricature
can never be a Mona Lisa, for a masterpiece can't be one dimensional
juxtaposition of sadistic extremes… and that's my grouse with the
celebrations…

And I say all this not because I don't know what is India. I know its
poverty and the real statistics around it a little better than most others –
especially the Indian film critics who have given "Slumdog…" an average of 4
to 4.5 stars! But the fact is that the film's entire narration seems like
the germination of a terribly sadistic and complex mind with the sole aim of
satisfying the western idea of India – and its new found growth instincts at
their cost - and it is done through a combination of illogical happenings in
order to show everything in a disgustingly negative vein. Not that it
doesn't exist, but it surely doesn't exist in this fictitious manner. While
"Salaam Bombay" had realism, "Slumdog…" is just every scrap of dirt picked
up from every corner and piled up together to try and hit back at the
growing might of India. And the awards almost seem like a sadistic effort to
show the world – look we knew that this was India, and these are the
slumdogs we are outsourcing our jobs to. It stinks of racial arrogance and
it's such a shame now on second thought to see the Indian faces – including
that of the undoubted master, AR Rahman - celebrating its success. There is
nothing positive about the film and it seems that a deranged sadist has
painted his insecure negative self in each and every character of the movie.
It illogically shows every negative thing about India happening in the
protagonist's life... slums, open-air lavatories, riots, underworld,
prostitution, brothels, child labour, begging, blinding and maiming of kids
to make them into 'better beggars', petty peddlers, traffic jams,
irresponsible call centre executives… everything apart from western
pedophiles roaming around in Indian streets!! And its winning of so many
awards and nominations only goes on to prove strongly that the paradigm of
cinema and recognition of films are in the hands of a few retarded
imperialistic minds. It's a crying shame that our media hasn't seen through
this ruse and is touting "Slumdog's" nominations to claim that India is
shining at the Oscars, while in fact it is lauding a film that mocks and
ridicules the idea of 'India', pigeonholing its identity into the
straitjacket of depraved poverty for a global audience.

When the West wanted Indians to embrace them and their companies to come to
India and capture the lucrative markets, suddenly we had all the Indian
women, some very beautiful and some not necessarily so, winning all the Miss
Universe and Miss Worlds. Today, they are in a crisis and India is looking
unstoppable despite its slums and poverty, and they are losing their
businesses to us. Isn't it the best time to paint India as the Slumdog
Millionaire?? All in all, the film is nothing but an endorsement of an
erstwhile imperial mindset of the West and its blinkered vision of India. An
English master has made an Indian slumdog. Don't even waste your time
watching this film in the theatres. It sucks and there is nothing great in
it as a film too. Amitabh Bachchan was spot on when he said that Bollywood
has made far better mainstream films. Take out a DVD of one of his old films
instead…

http://arindamchaudhuri.blogspot.com/2009/01/dont-see-slumdog-millionaire-it-sucks.html