It is ridiculous to say that the makers of the film is exploiting India. They found a good subject to film from the story written by an Indian. So they made a good film out of it and got recognizion. We have, unfortunately, an inflated ego problem. We don't want some one to see our negetive sides. Suppose some one makes a film on curruption and bribery and political dramas, it will be another success story but some of our people will complain that it is again showing the under belly of India.
this is a film, why we are taking so seriously. we have to take it in a positive manner and try to end the poor. the westerners taking serious abt india's poor. but indians administrators and film makers not at all thinking abt poor. cinema changed culture a lot, please our film makers try to focus on how to develop our country rather than showing western locations and culture. this is the time to west to prove ourself.
Why take umbrage at depiction of the truth? India has over 55% of all the world's starving, underfed and undernourished folks- living in filth and squalor. Successive govts run by corrupt thieving criminals, fattened their own bank-accounts on taxpayers monies, while piddling on the aam aadmi, who are made to live in hellish cesspools likes Dharavi. Far from being a humbug, it should serve to prod a useless uncaring govt into doing its duty and provide for their citizens basic needs.
I saw this movie last night and must say that it does protray the triumph of the human spirit in a gripping manner. The style of storytelling through the format of answering questions is unique, atleast to my knowledge and overall it is neither a complete Hollywood nor a Bollywood way of story telling, but rather incorporates the elements of both quite seamlessly. Initially I was taken aback by the poverty and squalor shown in the movie and started to question the motives behind this depiction, however after the plot of the slum dweller reaching to the final rounds of a quiz show became quite clear, my focus on the projection of poverty in a Hollywood movie turned into a criticism of Bollywood on the absence of any stories focussing on this strata of society there. I began to ask myself: why is it that our movies have stopped showing heroes dwelling in less priveleged backgrounds? The backdrop of a Yash Chopra, SRK, Karan Johar, Rakesh roshan, Hrithik, and every banner in Bollywood, is so much sanitized India (like its all Switzerland), that we have been shocked and feel rather insulted when such images appear in front of us, through the eyes of western storytellers. The prejudice that a chaiwallah faces in his path to success, as if through his answers he has tried to shake up the status quo of class hierarchies, is much more of India's problem than the perceived dent on our ego which this movie - by a western director,the fact of slums is a shame not its portrayal.
dear indians and politicians ur country is shown in such a degrading way do something do not bask in the glory of the oscars -see the true meaning-do it for ur country
i agree with your view.the film is an eye opener ---it shows india's divese character in economic area also.if the film's profit is used for the benefit of slumdwellers that will be real oscar winning story
I understand some of the debate going on and I see how many might be upset by it showing some terrible things. However the main theme that I took away from Slumdog was a love story of someone going against overwhelming odds to find his soul mate. And despite some of the things in the movie, I have a warmer feeling towards India than I ever did before.
I am an Indian and I have been working in various countries and I have friends and colleagues from all over the world. What Mr.Bachan said is true. Poverties and slums are everywhere in different forms even in developed countries. The English man, who took the movie slum dog millionaire, knows that in his country, the local governments build flats for poor people. Indian slums dogs are at least hard working people and they build the slums. But if the government doesn’t support his country’s slum dogs, they will die like street dogs in the street. Because, they don’t know what is hard working. What they know is to go to benefit office get the money, spend that money for alcohol, and drugs. Make too many babies to get more child benefit. And also they know that, for example, how to make sex with their mother’s boy friend or father’s girl friend or how to make sex with son-in-law or daughter-in -law. This is their culture. India never invaded and plundered other countries. So we do not have that sort of money to build council flats for all poor people. Even though we have a nasty neighbour and we spend our income for defence we have progressed a lot when compared to 1947. The English guy who took the picture with the support of Indian idiots must understand that Briton, when compared to India, is a very small country. Still they have considerable amount of poor people and council flats all over the UK. There are so many other countries in the wor
Re: Shame dog Millionaire
by Chohan on Feb 26, 2009 01:49 AM
Sajia, does Britian also have all these: Child labor Child abuse Child molestation, Sale of 7under age girls pedophillia ( a celebrated one...like sola (16) sal ka shola sung by over 18 man...or over 18 men marrying or having sex with under 18 girls) Sexual molestation Abuse of public by police offocials etc. Please tell us if west and britian has all the above eveils? Every indian is crying over poverty scenes which were not more than 3 to 4 but whole movie was base don all the above crimes but indians have no clue that all the above crimes are looked down in the west but desis on the other hand celebrate all the above... sing and dream for under 18 girls and consider over 25 year old women as old hags and aunties . Am I right?
Re: Shame dog Millionaire
by sanjai Krishna on Feb 25, 2009 03:48 AM
There are so many other countries in the world, which are poorer than India. Indian idiots who are proud about the movie slum dog millionaire must understand this is a propaganda movie came out of colonial attitude. The only happy and funny thing is our great Rahman got world attention for his ordinary work and painfully at a price. If you want to know what is real Briton please go to the Sun news web site. Briton’s national newspaper!! But remember, English people are not like Indians who have got two opinions even when their mother got raped.
Re: Re: Shame dog Millionaire
by XP on Feb 25, 2009 07:44 AM
An Indian fable tells of a mouse constantly troubled by his fear of rats! One day a magician took pity on the mouse and transformed him into a cat. At first the cat revelled in its new state and power, but before long noticed some lingering dogs. Cat life was driven now by the fear of canines. The magician again took pity on the cat and made it into a tiger. The tiger enjoyed the newfound status of King of the Forest, but soon noticed a hunter. Tiger life was now driven by fear of the hunter. The magician, frustrated with his attempts to improve the mouse’s lot, said, “Be a mouse again, for you have only the heart of a mouse, and I cannot help you.” Now, if you replace "Fear" with "Inferiority complex" and magician with "opportunistic mentality", the mouse represents the Indian mass. Then some with more "resources" like you "working in various countries" make things even worse because of the high coefficient of Hypocracy. People like you always hoist the virtual flag of Indian culture whenever and wherever they can for their own benefit or should I say to conceal their inherent fear of self-pity. We indians are the most racist people in the world. Look at any Indian matrimonial site and you find the true mentality of Indian mass. They wouldnt hesitate to go abroad to make money or join MNCs most of times on the grounds of falsified documents and/or credentials. They tend to run from the realities as far as they can. Har 10 mein 9 Be-Imaan, Phir Bhi Mera Bh
Re: Re: Re: Shame dog Millionaire
by XP on Feb 25, 2009 07:46 AM
Har 10 mein 9 Be-Imaan, Phir Bhi Mera Bharat Mahan. Please dont insult the intelligentia by even considering that all the western-evils you just described, are not prevalent in Indian society. these things are everywhere. Its time to accept the truth and all the evils we have in our society. Thats the only way to get rid of the centuries old rotten customs, corruption, inequality and slave mentality. This will also help us build the nation from ground up without any fear or complex. If we dont have anything to hide, we dont have to pretend.
Re: Shame dog Millionaire
by XP on Feb 25, 2009 08:13 AM
The fact that you have been working in various countries, is simply beyond me when you cant even spell BRITAIN. Its BRITAIN not Briton. Briton is a citizen of BRITAIN. Share your own experiences and stop blubbering crap based on fairy tales.
Re: Shame dog Millionaire
by Guest on Mar 07, 2009 11:29 PM
Sanjai what you say is true. I'm not from India, I'm from Malaysia, and the reason why both our countries are not that rich is because definitely because THE BRITISH STOLE OUR STUFF DURING THE COLONIAL YEARS AND MAKE THEIR LAND BETTER. We still have a hard time trying to balance out the wealth here between all races in Malaysia, and some races are dissatisfied, but what else can we do when WE DONT EVEN HAVE ENOUGH FOR THE ORIGINAL RACES THAT LIVED HERE THROUGH THE YEARS AFTER BRITISH PEOPLE STOLE OUR TREASURES!
The problem with Slumdog isn't really the poverty and filth, if we think deeper. Poverty and slums are a reality in India and nobody denies that. The issue is the way they have presented everything about mumbai/india. NOT A SINGLE Indian character in the move is shown in a positive light (except for the main actors who cannot be evil despite being Indian because they are the victims in the story). The ONLY person shown as good and caring is an American white woman in one scene, that too in a taunting manner.
