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182 Comments
- Incman, on 01/12/2009, -0/+173Well, India is incredibly diverse and it is very hard to generalize. To be frank, I agree with the author to some extent. 'Slumdog Millionaire' lays too much stress on various ills in India. But I still liked the film because it was realistic and these ills were shown in a brilliant manner. Certain parts of India's society portrayed in the film, like children being forced into begging, bloody riots, stealing money from and harassing foreign tourists, gang warfare etc. are a reality. As a matter of fact, numerous Indian films have explored these dark sides of India. So why single out Slumdog Millionaire? Fact remains that Jamal and Lotika's love story is a part of India's culture too. Slumdog Millionaire is primarily a film of a nobody going against all odds to fulfill his dreams and make it big. Good and bad people co-exist in every society and there is a constant struggle between them and India is no different. As an Indian, I found this film thoroughly entertaining, realistic and while watching it, not even once the thought of the film being racist or ignorant came to my mind. The fact that so many Indians are a part of this film speaks for itself.
- Pasaris, on 01/12/2009, -4/+66Last I heard, it won best movie not best documentary. Relax, it's fictional.
- HappyScrappy, on 01/12/2009, -2/+55This movie condemns Indian culture because it shows Indians acting in bad ways?
If that's the case, the Hollywood condemns American culture 40 times a year.
So lighten up. - docksquad33, on 01/12/2009, -2/+46I'm indian myself, and in no way is this movie exploiting india just to win awards etc. this is interesting because my dad, and other older indian people i have met, have felt this same way. i disagree with them because they need to show the harsh realities of india and what jamal went through in his life, to get their point across in the movie. these harsh realities do exist, people just don't know about them, or don't want to talk about them. people see this as putting india down. i see this as raising awareness. if you don't like it, do something about it. this was a great movie.
- thepeacemaker, on 01/12/2009, -2/+43Slumdog Millionaire is one of the few movies that shows India for what it is. Not the India rising shining BS. Life for the overwhelming majority is absolutely miserable with huge swathes of the country without running water or electricity. Having said that, if you have money, life is really good (house help, drivers, cooks, the works - you have to dig your own bore well for water tho).
There is a reason for the above. Most Indians do not understand the concept of rights and privileges as is understood in the West. Gazillion religions, cultures, and shades of people combined with high illiteracy and superstition has resulted in poverty, corruption, and lawlessness. But as bad as it is, being a democracy offers a ray of hope.
/Indian - Briandt75, on 01/12/2009, -1/+37Possibly the best answer I've ever seen on digg.
- Blinker1315, on 01/12/2009, -3/+34"Slumdog" was a great film. I don't think it exploits the people of Mumbai anymore than an American films exploit the poverty-stricken areas of this country. I've been to Mumbai, and it seemed fairly accurate. And yes, of course there's another side of the story, which is that India has made enormous economic and democratic progress in the past two decades. The film depicted that as well.
- Anand999, on 01/12/2009, -0/+29I'm Indian but was born and raised in the US. I did not find it at all offensive. The sad fact of life is that many of the things portrayed in the movie really do happen, and ignoring it won't make it go away. Take any trip in India even slightly off the beaten path and you'll find tons of beggars doing anything they can for a few rupees.
I saw many contrasts between this movie and the movie "City of God" (another excellent movie). Both are tales of young men trying to survive and become something better despite the poverty and corruption they have to live in. - SpykerSpeed, on 01/12/2009, -1/+27My girlfriend, who is Indian, loved it. She told me India's government sucks, not the people or the culture. So it's perfectly fair to point out the poverty there.
- PizzaEagle, on 01/12/2009, -0/+21I don't think I could say it any better than Incman did. I did find it interesting, though, that my (indian-american) mother did not think the movie was a happy one. She said that the depressing parts of the movie were all reality, while the happy part (him winning millionaire) was fantasy. She still liked the movie, however.
- alexkball, on 01/12/2009, -0/+16Um, have you guys forgotten about the terrorist attack at the Mumbai Taj Mahal hotel like a friggin' month ago?!
People forget about stuff so quickly...do you need more evidence for what it can be like to live in Mumbai? It's not just call centers for your Dell computers. - kooredaan, on 01/12/2009, -1/+15I haven't lived in India, but have visited Mumbai for extended periods of time.....Yes and no. There are parts of Mumbai (and India) that are exactly like the movie portrays, but there is such a bigger part of Mumbai (and India) the movie doesn't show...
But that wasn't the point of the movie. It wasn't an introduction to Mumbai for everyone, it was a story about a kid who beats the odds. It just happened to be placed in India.
Sadly, I do think, too many people in the US will see it as their introduction to India and be turned off to the great cultural and diverse country India really is.
Still, people should go watch the film. It was fantastic. - SexyFarts, on 01/12/2009, -1/+15Buried for the obvious fact that the author has no idea what he's talking about (and he points it out twice that he has no idea what India is like). The fact is that the events portrayed in the film really do happen, not just in India but practically every 3rd world, developing, or newly industrialized nations. The author is obviously too comfortable in his ignorant-to-the-rest-of-the-world lifestyle to even fathom anything that happened in the movie as realistic.
He then asks the question why critics find it uplifting. It's uplifting because the main protagonist, Jamal, somehow finds true love against all odds amidst everything that happens in the movie from finding her abandoned, to losing her, to finding her again, to losing her to his brother, to finding her yet again. And he did all this while he had absolutely nothing...
One of the worst articles I've read. - idiotech, on 01/12/2009, -1/+14I think the author of this article went over-board... There are plenty of movies which are dark and display the grimey side of life in the U.S., for example. Not every film is trying to introduce the world to India and all of its many cultural facets.
So the focus was slum-life... that's not a pleasant setting, if you're being realistic. And the story was a classic hero-against-the-world scenario. Even when he reached the game-show and answered all of the questions well, it was still a struggle... The movie was more about his amazing struggle and story, a realistic depiction of a child from the slums, rather than a movie which was trying to illustrate all of India's beauty and cultural depth. - Chicken2nite, on 01/12/2009, -0/+13"I have no idea if that’s the real India..." and at that point I stopped reading the article, since this is seems to be a case of white guilt and sophomoric argument without any real point of view. For more on that subject, I found a humorous web page: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/28/101-bei ...
For another Indian's perspective on Slumdog Millionaire, check out this one: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39248
In short, s/he compares Slumdog to a British chain restaurant in New York that serves better/more authentic Indian food than any Indian restaurant in the city, if I do recall.
Edit: after reading further, he asks what people would think if it were set in America, to which I would say check out Once Upon a Time in America, where Robert Deniro does some crazy ass *****. - ngmcs8203, on 01/12/2009, -0/+12So, are we to expect Indian culture movies should be 2hr bolly-wood dance epics where the leading man never kisses the woman?
- alexkball, on 01/12/2009, -1/+12I'm sorry but this author missed the point of the movie ENTIRELY.
Remember, for those of you who saw it, when one of the first questions of the movie is "what is the most famous phrase in India?" (or something to that effect.) The answer is "the truth alone triumphs" which proceeds to be a common theme throughout the entire film. The message is that yes despite his objectively difficult upbringing, Jamal's honesty and truthfulness led him to be triumphant. The movie celebrates Jamal more than anything, who represents the best of Indian culture. His brother, the ganglords, the violent hindi that killed his mother, and the corrupt police are all vilified.
The only reason people get so up in arms about this movie is its being directed by a white British guy. If it had been directed by an Indian director you'd never heard of we would of course take this to be the real India, but instead we make claims of racism, etc.
Buried. - PotentPotables, on 01/12/2009, -3/+14This guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. I'm Indian, I visited India in 2005, and I thought the movie accurately depicted the country. If anything, they didn't show enough of the corruption and chaos that takes place over there.
- Dronez, on 01/12/2009, -0/+11My mother is from India, and I have visited New Delhi myself for a month. My mother enjoyed the film quite a bit, she wants to buy it when it comes out on DVD. The fact is, the movie is very accurate to what it is like over there.
This article is *****. The only thing about the movie that isn't accurate is torturing contestants behind the scenes on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. - newmanium2001, on 01/12/2009, -4/+14Ugh, this article gives me a headache to read. So many grammatical errors and ambiguous pronouns that you'd think this guy was a 5th grader.
Not to mention this little snippet that seems to totally discredit any of his own rant:
"Yet Donald Monroe of the Fresno Bee says this “Indian tale is delightful.” What? This is a movie which portrays Indian culture as bankrupt and evil. As shown in Slumdog Millionaire the Indian way of life is one of poverty and callous disregard for basic human rights. I have no idea if that’s the real India, but that’s the one portrayed in this movie."
Bury. - durruticolumn, on 09/18/2009, -0/+10"Q and A is the first novel by Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat. It was published in 2005.
Set in India, it tells the story of Ram Mohammad Thomas, a poor young waiter who becomes the biggest quiz-show winner in history, only to be sent to jail on accusations that he cheated.
Narrated in the first person, the novel then follows the life of the young waiter as he explains to his sympathetic lawyer, Smita Shah, just how he managed to answer twelve random questions, by pure luck. As he says, "Well, wasn't I lucky they only asked those questions to which I knew the answers?"
Ram goes on to tell her how by drawing from the experiences of his own short, yet turbulent and sometimes cruel life he, a poor, young waiter, managed to answer the twelve questions that led him to the jackpot.
It is now been made into a radio play, a stage musical and a feature film directed by Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_and_A - kingmanic, on 01/12/2009, -0/+9Showing the realities of a poverty stricken but on the rising nation isn't racism. You don't have to gloss over all the problems of a country to make a film honoring it. India has a massive number of problems as does every country. Unless you are making a fantasy or a documentary you are going to have to play up some of those problems.
I'm sure many people live good uneventful lives in india, but that doesn't make a good film. Just as the Godfather plays up some of the problems in American society to make a good film, slumdog millionaire does the same. - kenedamick, on 01/12/2009, -6/+15Slumdog kicked ***** ass.
- inactive, on 01/12/2009, -0/+9Not just India, but anyone in poverty/desperation.
- thecheatah, on 01/12/2009, -0/+8When I was a little kid, growing up in india, I use to see beggars handicapped. They would always be together. My mom also told me stuff like that happened in india. They kidnap you and what not. I just never made the connection :-\. Now I am a little depressed.
- trollick, on 01/12/2009, -0/+8Because, every movie set in US, for example, "celebrates" American culture?
- nayans, on 01/12/2009, -0/+8I am someone who has lived in mumbai for 21 years of his life before moving out to US and i absolutely loved the movie. They have shown the worst part of mumbai in the movie but unfortunately its true as well.
the way the police treats jamal and the use of the local slang...chu... mc bc and all that is very common.... the fact that there are gangs which use children as beggars is true as well......there are so many kids like jamal growing up...
the author is unaware of the fact that this is indeed real india, sad but true.....i see the movie as a triumph of a kid who has seen nothing but hardship in his entire life and then finally things go his way and he gets to be with the love of his life, the only reason he probably lives for.....
his life journey has been portrayed very well in the movie however sad it might be.... - inactive, on 01/12/2009, -0/+8Slumdog Millionaire doesn't celebrate Indian culture? Didn't they know that any movie that has a certain race or culture as the primary characters in a film, they were obligated to make India look like a wonderful place where nothing bad ever happens? Where was the outrage when Soul Plane didn't celebrate African culture? Where was the blog rant when Disaster Movie made all of America look like *****?
Just because a movie takes place in India, or the story involves primarily Indians, doesn't obligate the filmmaker to "celebrate Indian culture." God damn, people are ***** touchy these days. - inactive, on 01/12/2009, -0/+8I agree. Also, this isn't a story about India, this is a story slums in general, it would've worked just as well in any other countries.
- chanop, on 01/12/2009, -1/+9I'm Scottish and I found it very offensive.
- mitthuman, on 01/12/2009, -1/+9Josh Tyler seems guilty of what he's accusing Slumdog Millionaire of being--I felt he insulted India more than the movie did...Was it a rant against Slumdog Millionaire? against the reviews of Slumdog Millionaire? or against India as a country that is full of inexcusable actions by "those people"?
if you ask me, Josh Tyler doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. - SchrodingersCar, on 01/12/2009, -0/+8SLUMdog Millionaire. SLUM.
I didn't leave the movie thinking "what a joyous celebration of Indian Culture!"
Extreme poverty sucks everywhere. - andrewlotta, on 01/12/2009, -0/+8Only one problem with this theory - the people of India love this film.
- autobulb, on 01/12/2009, -0/+7There are dozens of Western films that portray the worst of human society. These films can still be interesting to watch and don't necessarily represent the culture as a whole. The person that recommended Slumdog Millionaire to me is from India and enjoyed the film without a problem. It's fine if the author disagrees with critics' descriptions of the film but they're also making alot of assumptions of their own that are similiar to saying the film is a "joyous celebration" of Indian culture.
- gfish3000, on 01/12/2009, -5/+12I don't know why film critics like movies in which the protagonist is basically a pariah surrounded by murderers, rapists, torturers and people without a single shred of kindness. India is a very diverse country of 1.1 billion people. Sure there's a lot of crime and violence but it's not nearly as bad as it's being portrayed. Kite Runner was the same exact thing just set in Afghanistan. This goes to show that you never know what critics will like, but throw in a lot of unjustified suffering and cast only villains as supporting actors while your protagonist is tortured at every step of the way and you have a shot at Oscar gold.
- Gazzle, on 01/12/2009, -1/+8This 'critique' is shockingly bad, how do people like this get a job?
"I have no idea if that’s the real India", "Maybe this is the real India. I won’t pretend to know...". Statements like this hardly qualify him to critique a film about India. To have the gall to talk about "Indian Culture" as if it were a small island or city... this is a country of a billion people, a vast multifaceted nation with such a mix of diverse cultures from post-modern Western to medieval poverty. Take the diversity of the US and multiply it by 10 and you aren't even close.
India (if he had ever cared to visit) is full of "third world cliches".... but it's not /only/ third world cliches, and that is the point... this film is not about them.
Does he hate The Godfather because it's full of US cliches?
~Fail~ - Aitese, on 01/12/2009, -1/+8Oh please!
"If this were an American movie about an American child going through precisely the same miserable life of abuse on the streets of New York, I have a hard time believing it would be described as anything other than disturbing and frightening. If this story were set in South Central LA, it would be decried as racist"
I'm guessing this is a film critic who has never seen Taxi Driver or Boyz N The Hood. Is his problem the movies portrayal of the negative aspects of Indian society at all, or that it's being billed as an uplifting movie? Of course for dramatic effect all the ills of a particular society will be portayed in a microcosm. Would all the things that happened to the protagenist happen to a single person in real life? Probably not...but it's not real life is it? Are all Italian Americans like the Sopranos or the Corleone family? Do all African Americans live like the cast of The Wire or New Jersey Drive? If I wander into a white neighbourhood will my head be stomped into a curb by a swashtika tatooed skinhead? No. But those negative aspects are what make the movies or TV shows what they are. I'm Nigerian and I sat through the awful Bruce Willis movie Tears Of The Sun about some fictional Nigerian civil war protraying the sort of genocidal maniac war lords found in other parts of Africa. Do men like that exist? Yes. In Nigeria? No. But it was a movie...and the bad script was my main beef. - Sublimin4L, on 01/12/2009, -0/+7Most of the Indian people I've spoken to living in America, don't like it. They felt it portrayed India (as a whole) a slum, where prostitution runs every street corner. Mostly because here, there's quite a few closed minded people that actually think the whole country is a horrible, dark place.
Family members of mine that still live in India say they're actually happy to see something about India in the mainstream that isn't about Gandhi, or random white people (Danny Boyle stated himself, in an interview, that he didn't want random white guys going through India; rather, he wanted people's stories from their own countries, which I respect). http://www.femail.com.au/danny-boyle-slumdog-milli ...
In my opinion, I liked it and disliked it. For example, the scene in SM where the kid Dev gets locked in an outhouse & his favorite actor (Amitabh Bachan) is giving out autographs, and he he has no way to get out except to jump into the pit of feces. I thought that was a bit too much. Growing up in Delhi, that kind of stuff would never happen (sure, kids would play pranks on each other, but never to that effect). Not all of Mumbai is prostitution. It's similar to Hollywood & New York City-there's a lot of movie stars that live there, lots of business persons from abroad, it's huge: population in the millions. Then you get the DC & Los Angeles parts: gangs, violence, prostitution. As with any place, there are good parts and bad.
Having watched quite a few Bollywood movies during my childhood, I do feel it was a great story, and was surprised to learn the director wasn't Indian. The acting was done very well, great direction, and overall, I do think the film deserved every award it received. Just, people have to realize Slumdog Millionaire's India isn't the whole India, just like the NYC painted in GTAIV isn't the whole NYC. - pault107, on 01/12/2009, -0/+7City of God is indeed an excellent movie - well worth watching. The creators also went on to make City of Men which is a series and shares some of the same actors as City of God and uses the same settings - also awesome.
- thelab101, on 01/12/2009, -2/+9why is this idiot on digg?
- inactive, on 01/12/2009, -1/+7I am just waiting for that movie. I like such type of Amalgam White and black people as I have seen in "American blend"
- thinsoldier, on 01/12/2009, -0/+6Great answer.
City of God doesn't celebrate Brazilian culture but it's still the best movie I've ever seen. - diemunkiesdie, on 01/12/2009, -2/+8You said it yourself, India is a very diverse country. That means, the storyline of Jamal could actually have happened, right? Just because they focused on the underbelly of society doesn't mean they are saying that only the underbelly exists. They focused on the character and his story, not on the country as a whole. To think the intention of this film was to malign Indians would be inaccurate.
- ltethe, on 01/12/2009, -1/+7The reviewer needs to descend out of his bloody ivory tower every once in a while. Check out his own 3rd world slum in his own backyard, good old Tijuana.
The world isn't as pretty as the manicured suburbia (if you wish to call that beauty) in America.
Damn idiot talks from a perspective of ignorance. Take a stroll into Watts, Compton, Tijuana. Learn to see the beauty in the brutality, the beauty in the broken windows, the beauty in the graffiti.
Here, beauty is perseverance. And it IS beautiful. - shosh0610, on 01/12/2009, -0/+6I grew up in India and I would like to add to this wonderful response from Incman. When I watched the movie I was shocked by the depiction of Mumbai slums. The raw, crude, "not going to glorify or degrade for a movie" depiction of the slums blew me away. Growing up, my mother used to tell me stories about strangers kidnapping kids, blinding them and making them beg on the streets. She used that very effectively to instill fear of strangers in me and would tell me to never talk to them. When I watched the movie, it reminded me so much of all the stories that my mom used to tell me. It was deadly accurate. Yes, its a bit exaggerated in parts but overall I couldn't have imagined a better matter of fact portrayal of Mumbai. Never did I feel that the movie was being racist and portrays a bankrupt culture. Infact, I find a lot of bollywood movies really shallow and degrading.
- hasiabh, on 01/12/2009, -0/+5I dont think this movies exploited anyone. I have spent numerous years in India, and I can relate to what was happening at the times that the movie represented.
I figure that Jamal's mother died in the ' 93 mumbai riots, which had gripped the city and over 900 people had died. The riots were sparked based on racial tensions between Hindus and Muslims. (The question at the time was about Lord Ram, and there was a little boy dressed as Ram shown as well)
During the latter part of the movie when a call center environment is shown, while not completely accurate, serves a very important function. Almost 60 percent of the youth aged 18-25 in urban metro areas work in the call center and BPO industries.
Jamal jumping in a pile of poo to get the actor's (Amitabh Bachhan) autograph also payed homage to the god-like popularity that he commands.Incidentally, Amitabh Bacchan was also the first host of the Indian edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ( Kaun Banega Crorepati).
I have also had the pleasure of having my shoes stolen at the Taj Mahal - twice.
And the police brutality : it happens,
So I, as one born in India, think this movie is very hard hitting and real. Anyone who has been on the streets of Delhi or Bombay will tell you, the part about little kids getting maimed, and begging for money, is a very factual occurrence. We just don't like talking about it, and it makes us uncomfortable. Hence we try to ignore it in real life.
In India, a woman can get raped in a moving car, and then thrown at an intersection like trash. No one cares. I just find that the same people now think that showing India in that light is bad.
Sure all of India is not like that.But the movie is not call "Average-Indian- Millionare" was it? - Daiken, on 01/12/2009, -0/+5I'm Indian and I had no problem with the movie. Granted, India isn't all full of criminals and thieves, but there wasn't anything shown that doesn't really happen. People in the slums generally do have difficult lives, especially without any parents and it's not tough to imagine the things that happened. The movie wasn't a documentary for the west to understand what India is like. The purpose of the movie was to tell a story, and the setting of it just happened to be pretty dark.
- FishyJoe, on 01/12/2009, -0/+5The movie made it seem like the telephone job was the worst possible work. For a guy to get a job like that from out of the slums doesn't seem too bad. He could have done a lot worse.
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