Portrays India in poor light. Review on Slumdog Millionaire Movie

Portrays India in poor light

Whats wrong with us, how can we appreciate a movie which just holds a bunch of all negatives found in India.Is India is only known for ..... Slums,Poverty,Crime,Injustice,Disorder,Destitution,Prostitution.

There is a saying that nothing succeed than success and as of now slumdog is leading the rally. This movie was more disappointing to me .Forget about the awards it has won.Suerly it will sweep all the major national & international awards.Please think for a moment,If this movie had been shot in America from a slum in Chicago or Milwaukee of LA, American film critics would have howled out their protestsinstead of awards. Now one thing is confirmed , what sells is the worst face of India in the hollywood.

This surely is not a real picture of India, and was nothing true,Its more of a documentary film.It is a normal Indian Movie with Hollywood touch at the best to be told. They have narrated India as a Slum at the max and it appears that the Oscar award given for Rahman, is basically to make the people of the world to feel that they have outsourced their jobs to the Slumdogs of India.

Surprising winning Eight Oscar for this movie.I think the hollywood folks are tired of their adventures of superman & spiderman types or is it that oscar standards have fallen.

Let me not give the summary of this movie,I hope everyone by this time has seen the movie.The story starts with slum children playing cricket near an airport runway, when they are chased mercilessly around Dharavi by cops to vacate the premises. The chase shows the garbage infested lanes, drains, squalor and filth. It maybe difficult for some of us to digest the scene, but the foreigners do love to take voyeuristic pleasure in our poverty ridden depraved existence.

In short Slum Dog Millionaire , the story is based on a very successful book by Vikas Swarup called "Q and A". It's about a kid from the slums of Mumbai, who has nothing – he's ill educated, he's illiterate,and he goes on to the game show " Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and wins it. And they can't believe that he's done it. They think he's cheated. They think he's getting signals from embedded chips in his body, or that there are people coughing in the audience, but he won it.

Please note,The worst part of the movie was,When an Indian policeman hit Jamal near Taj Mahal, an American lady tries to save Jamal. Then Jamal says to her see this is real India. To which lady says I will show you real America and hugs him. Now what does that mean? How much more derogatory can it get for Indians? Any objections raised....Very sorry..NO.

One more interesting observation,How can you call a Slum dweller as a Slum Dog ? (Like Billu Barber) Many more,But let me stop here......

Not to forget,The movie still has some high points. Let me give the credit to the director Danny Boyle,For his courage & brilliant direction.Danny Boyle & his effecient team succeeds in their attempt to identifying the Darkest corners of life in modern India.What they best succeed in is to pander to the western stereotypes about India as a country of illiteracy, Slums,Poverty,Crime,Injustice so on.

A R Rahman's Music is good, though nothing to praise about.It went along with the plot really well..(it is not his best...He has given much wonderful music in most of his other movies)Camera has been ably handeled and the Slums of Mumbai have been shown without any manipulation. The cinematography is stunning and edgy,The concept of mixing who wants to be millioniare with life of Slums was a good idea.

Actors were great, no doubt about it , The acting of Dev Patel in the role of Jamal Malik is excellent.Irfan Khan the brilliant actor did not had much to prove his acting skills .Anil Kapoor,as the game show host, didn’t have anything substantial to present. Moreover it is a kind of villain character.It was a wise decision by Shahrukh to drop this role.But more than these great actors, I found the little Jamal (Ayush Mahesh Khedekar) little Salim(Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail) and little Latika (Rubiana Ali ) strike the best cords.

I appreciate & do agree withMr Amitabh Bachan's statement ... If ’Slumdog Millionaire’ projects India as Third World dirty underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations.Its just that the ’Slumdog Millioanire’ idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a westerner, gets creative global recognition'.

I sincerely request the foreign directors to come out of this illusion and understand that INDIA is much much more than slums,Poverty,crimes,prostitution....

Dear friends,This movie to me is a is a poverty porn, It portrays India in poor light. its a western interpretation of Indian life.If you feel that the director has shown true India & If this is the reality,than let me not see this reality.I am not running away from the reality,I am just keeping away.For a while,Let me be the cat which closes the eye & drinks the milk,rather than seeing India at its worst....

Let me conclude with the golden words of my dear friend Mr Paul... "Bad intentions do not make a good product, though good advertisement and awards may popularize it. One may be able to fool all the people for some time, some people for all times but not all people "