The movie was very touching and it was meant to be a feel-good movie with a positive ending. I think the only reasons some Indians are feeling offended is because firstly,it supposedly portrays mumbai's poverty, why are you angry? it is a fact, we do have poverty, but the movie tried to show that hope and love can exist in such a world. how does that make the movie so scandalous?None of them have captured the esscense of the film.They're just pissed off that a foreign director could do it, but why not ? because those bollywood producers and directors wont make real films like these? because they're interested in showing stupid unbelivable and retarded movies like "kya kehna" "koi mil gaya" "ghajini"? seriously, even rang de basanti was far fetched, but NO ... that movie was soooo good ..how could it NOT get an oscar?? ( my apologies to aamir khan, but please learn some film making, make it real if you expect international acclaim...i mean seriously, the swat team and all that crap...dont let me even start with ghajini)anyway, the real problem lies with the blithering indian masses who LIKE filmy masala crap like that.so how can you expect decent reviews from people who have a poor taste in films anyway ?
Re: Agreed.
by saurabh srivastava on Feb 25, 2009 07:49 PM
so you think slumdog is realistic!!!!!!! the intent of showing all that poverty and riots is not to make the movie realistic but to make it appeal to the 'whitemen' which i wrote earlier as well.
Re: Re: Agreed.
by shevonne on Feb 25, 2009 11:22 PM
cmon get real. the riots didnt exist? if anyone who's being racist .. its you.. "whitemen"??!. its a story even if it is a fictional story it makes way more sense than bald guys who get amnesia every 2 secs. like i said no one understands the deeper message of the story.
Re: Re: Re: Agreed.
by saurabh srivastava on Feb 26, 2009 01:49 AM
amnesia attacks were inspired from an english movie called 'Memento'.And nobody says Ghajini is realistic. And m not being racist i hav used that term just as a reference to some people. Go through my earlier post and u will realize what m i trying to say here. Why were the characters in the book modified in such a way?
No award for lagaan means injustice. They dumped all the Oscars in retrospect onto the first movie that a white man made that matched our classics. It still is a coloured world - coloured vision is what I am talking about. But this is about them getting a treasure in return for us getting some metal.
The movie is taken saying that "this is real India".. but it is taken to throw spotlight on the belmishes than the growing goodness of India. There is nothing to be proud of the victory.. it is just taken to satisfy the ego of the countrymen who desperately want to project the failures of other nations and get benefitted out of it..
this oscar awards are just a way to make our people go and watch this movie.. so that they can get back the return on investment..it is just to attract the mass towards the theater and make thm pay for their tickets... cheap marketing strategy..
Re: slum dog millionare - really hurts..
by saurabh srivastava on Feb 25, 2009 08:00 PM
true... the oscars just give their perspective of things that they aren't even completely awre. But people like us who know the reality have to throw some light on it, and abhor this projection of wrong image of MUMBAI and in turn INDIA as a whole.
Poverty was depicted in SWADES as well but not with the same intent as in SLUMDOG.In Slumdog it hast been used to show "The whiteman's view of India".Swades also showed the cast system and all but not with same intent as in SLUMDOG. Slumdog modified the questins that were their in the book Q&A to show something that would appeal more to the 'Whitemen'. In the book the lead protagonist is a hindu boy and he has a muslim friend who has been replaced by Jamal's brother in the movie. The book does not contain anything about riots. The book shows the hindu muslim unity through this friendship but that has been removed just because it wouldn't have appealed that much to the 'whiteme'.And their were other objectionable things as well like the comparison of 'REAL INDIA' and 'REAL AMERICA' description during the scenes around the TAJ MAHAL. Rest is for the people to decide that whether SLUMDOG's victory is something we should be proud of or not?
Re: SWADES also depicted poverty but not in this way
by anuradha venkatesh on Feb 25, 2009 12:53 AM
exactly... the poverty depicted in swades speaks about the economy background but this movie speaks about our cultural backlash.. do they really show the real america.. no..
I have witnessed many types of Oreos in my life. However, Aarti, you are a classic! Not that it wasn't already amusing to read your obvious embarrassment with introducing your "white" friends to Bollywood, your attempt to conflate Kya Kehna with KHNH - a diaspora movie not set in India, is downright laughable. I have watched this movie in theaters twice, the second time primarily to listen in on the clearly ignorant white audience's responses and remarks. While there were plenty of exceptions among those audiences who appreciated the film for the right reasons, and still did not think that it fully represented India or Mumbai, there were plenty of ignorant members in the audience who did just that. I do not support the uninformed critique of the film either (much of these criticisms are suspect anyway), I HOPE and PRAY that there are more Indians in the US who have more knowledge of India and faith in it, not to turn into an Oreo like you. I trust you know what an oreo refers to :)
Re: OREO
by dinesh on Feb 25, 2009 06:40 PM
The people who can read and write about this article are the "whites" in India, who always want to supress the poor in terms of caste and money. When somebody shows shows the reality all these supportes of poor will come out of darkness..what a tragedy. India is still one of the poorest countries of the world, and many of african countries boast higher per capita income than india. I dont know how these urban "whites" are going to see the slum and get an idea of what is happening there.
Now, if only we had given a fitting reply to Pak after 26/11 by using our enormously-talented Air-Force to carry out surgical bombings on strategic Pak military targets and terrorist hideouts in Pak, every Indian could be walking around today with his head held high.
The tragedy is that we have the anti-national UPA Government in place, which, even after 26/11, is still issuing visitor-visas to Pakis to enter India, and is still operating the Samjhauta Express train to Pak.
A British movie on Indian slums, being well received in the West - now, should we really be feeling so proud of this ?
I am at present living in germany, here none of my friends has seen the movie. But after seeing the movie, I felt good. Its a movie about hope and love and sacrifice. What remains in your head is only those things. I have seen the movie 'city of god', It also shows povery and lawlessness, but after seing that movie what remains in your head is the chaos and the fact how cheap the life of a person is in Brazile. I would suggest to all those psudo hyppocrats who have not seen the movie, or can only appriciate Emraan Hashmi kissing onscreen to see the movie first. By the way I liked dilli6 verymuch. We should promote such movies in India.
Re: Great article aarti
by mo jintao on Feb 24, 2009 07:46 PM
the fact that you cannot construct a sentence in english but are living in germany, also seems like a story of "hope" to me. If indians like you could spell like crap and still end up "at present" in germany i kudos to you, you are doing great. Not to pick on your terrible english exclusively, i have seen worse around the world, but it only makes me happy that despite your obvious handicap people like you still seem to be doing decently well. have you ever wondered why the danny boyles of the world dont make stories on indian people like you? why focus on all negative stereotypes (even the book characteristics like name of lead character was modified to make it more inline with western-marketable stereotypes on india's religions). one final suggestion to those feeling proud of having seen the movie - also read the original book the movie has been based upon and you will see why people on this board have been complaining of boyle taking cheapshots at india
Re: Re: Great article aarti
by anand on Feb 24, 2009 10:54 PM
I don't know about your job Mr 'mojo'. For succeeding in life one need not know the language very well, what one needs is the intelligent and right way of thinking. I am quite sure of one thing, you belong to those class of people who look at the west and never see around yourself. I may say a few more characteristics of yours. You hate the international fame Aishwarya rai gets, you hate IITians, you are the first one to bark when sania mirza loses in the finals and You dont like Obama, These are the characteristics of some of the fellow racist Indian losers who got their neck twisted as a result of constantly looking at the west and feeling jealous of Indians excelling there. haben sie das verstanden?
Re: Re: Re: Great article aarti
by mo jintao on Feb 25, 2009 09:14 AM
its mohammed jintao you as*wipe, where did mojo come from. I am now convinced that you not only cant write, nor can you read. I am happy for your low iq succeeding in germany, pls re-read my post if you did not get it first time around. I went to a better school than iit, voted for obama and dont give a rats as* what some so called tennis star who never ranked in top 50 does. btw, if i look any more west, i see japan so i am not sure why you got ur knickers in a bunch. Wakaru, you ignoramus?
ITS JUST A MOVIE.... INDIA cannot be captured in a movie, INDIA is what we INDIANS make it to be. And if you are so concerned about the image of india dont sit and type these messages but get up and do something about it. Try and do what Swami vivekanand ji did in Chicago, Do what Atal ji did in the UN few decades ago. Do what the Tata/Birla/Premji/mittal/Ambani etc did. Do what the jawans of Indian forces do, do what a qualified doctor who runs a PHC in remote village rather miniting money in a metro-city. Do what the ppl who give up high paying jobs to run NGOs to help the soceity. Do what muncipality worker does,,, clean the country., missing out on many such examples. Do your duty towards your family 7 country honestly, and make INDIA a better place, make it what it was in the past, the golden bird. Do your bit for your country,,, we are over a billion ppl, we can make india the BEST. JAI HIND.
PS: pls get a life this is just a movie, the are made for entertainment..
Re: EVERYONE...GET A LIFE!!!!!
by mo jintao on Feb 24, 2009 07:57 PM
i dont think posters on this board are asking movies to capture india. all they are asking is why the cheapshots exclusively for india. movies are not necesarily only for entertainment, media is often used for propaganda wittingly or unwittingly and negative stereotypes have a definite economic cost to all citizens of india in a global world. look at how other nations manage their brand equity, you may not realize it sitting in backoffices but country brand matters strongly in the global world. to give an example, given a choice will you deposit your money in a bank in ethiopia or one in iceland? iceland is actually broke not ethiopia so ethiopia is a safer bet but given its negative stereotypes all ethiopians have to overcome the initial hurdle. So doing your bit to criticize propagation of wrong stereotypes is equally important to doing what tata, premji etc do...
If "Salaam Bombay" was directed by Boyle (or some Brit) it too would have got an Oscar.
People say that unlike Indian Movies, this movie depicts reality and we should accept that. Movie making is not only about reality.
A R Rahman is a maestro. There are many of his songs are hundred times better than "Jai Ho". I strongly feel that any Music Director, not necessarily A R Rahman would have got an Oscar for Slumdog.
Re: Its directed by a Brit
by gautam shetty on Feb 24, 2009 05:25 PM
You are a jackass Lokesh. Moviemaking might not be reality but the fact that u are a jackass is. You will never understand why it won. Thats your problem.
Re: Re: Its directed by a Brit
by Lokesh S on Feb 25, 2009 10:02 AM
Do you know why it has won? Do you? Probably I dont know why it has won. I'm sure that it wouldn't have won if an Indian has made it.
And Gautam, if you know why SDM has won, then you must also be knowing why Lagaan and TZP didn't make it.
