Monday, September 06, 2010
   
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Slum Dog Conundrum

Written by Staff Writer

Much has been said and analyzed in India about the surprise hit from Danny Boyle's: Slumdog Millionaire. There are two things which are fundamentally wrong about how some of the Indian critics have been looking at this movie and it gives an interesting window on how they think.

 

"It only portrays poverty in India"
Lets say I make a movie about Hockey, now if the movie becomes a hit and a darling of Sundance crowd in the western world - am I portraying that Hockey is the only sport that is played in India or by showcasing Hockey am I doing a disservice to other more deserving sports? Movie making as a trade is a very focused art. You make a movie on a particular subject be it love or a war or a murder mystery or anything but you don't write masters thesis in that subject. As a movie maker you are telling a story in your own style but not for a minute you are insinuating that your story is the only absolute truth out there. If any uninformed person perceives the movie as a complete truth then he does it on his own peril. A movie or any work of art cannot be blamed for the failings of a society.

"Westerners only like poverty porn from India"
Incidentally this is the first time that I have heard about this phrase - poverty porn. It begs the question why do Indian critics care what kind of bollywood movies do westerners like, unless they are sensitive about their image in western world. Now this is interesting, Indian film fraternity or Bollywood, has been ridiculed for a very long time in the media about various aspects of their film making but it has not put a dent in their movie making quality - it is and remains fiercely market driven. It is not that these guys cannot make good movies, most of them have to intentionally dumb down to cater to the masses kind of like they do with stereotyping most black movies in Hollywood. What the media and film fraternity will not admit is that they are acutely sensitive to their image in western world. Every accolades, every award and every appreciation of their work from western world is very highly regraded in Bollywood and any hint of recognition from westerners is carefully combed and boasted. To that extent it could be a valid argument but it does confers a big inferiority tag on Bollywood film fraternity who inspite of making largest number of movies every year are still looking to outsiders for recognition.

Slumdog may be awash in clichés but there does exist a huge and murky underbelly in very Indian city and villlage which cannot be aestheticized by any amount of stylish portrayal. It is brutal, it is unforgiving and at the end of the day it is what it is. Millions of people in India are currently living that horrible life but the doyens of Bollywood film industry cannot even stand its portrayal lest it shows the whole country and their precious bollywood in bad light. A society with no serious debate about alleviating poverty, considers its biggest problem with poverty - image of the privileged. What a hogwash!

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