Slumdog: An air of million criticism
A lot has been written and discussed about Slumdog Millionaire. Much like the Obama wave it seems engulfing us all.
From the day it was nominated for the Golden Globe there have been extreme views. So much so that a war seems waged between the for and the against. The criticism more or less seems to follow two schools of thought discussed below.
First one rues the exploitation of poor India for money by the west. More like the East India Company reloaded. Westerners have been accused to revel at the mockery of Indian poverty. As Arindam Chaudhary writes, “Slumdog is a phony poseur that has been made only to mock India for the viewing pleasure of the First World”. The naked poverty of India might be self pleasing to the people of the West, given the time of depression. According to Amitabh Bacchan such underbellies do exist even in the developed nations. This is just a Western production and hence the recognition. These people have launched an offense against the team of the movie, western media and finally the whole of the western world.
The other school of thought is pretty much the same as far as the murky portrayal of Mumbai is concerned. The difference lies in how they are affected. People are worried about the answers they would need to give and ridicule they would be subjected to when they travel abroad the next time. As Preity Zinta says, “Now for the next 10 years of my life every time I travel abroad, I will be told, Oh, you live in Mumbai…where they gouge out eyes in the slums.”
One point missing here is, Does anybody care about the poverty and feel for the slum dwellers? Or it’s just the poverty in limelight which is itching the eyes. At first the movie was applauded. Then the criticism followed. Then there was criticism of the people criticizing the movie. “Isn’t that (poverty and slums) a reality”, says Shahrukh Khan. It would not be long when there would be people who would criticize the people criticizing who criticized the movie. Now, how much of criticism would that be!
ArpitGarg's Weblog 
personally, i didn’t like the movie. i thought it was India through a westerner’s eye just made for oscars
dolphin
April 3, 2009 at 7:20 pm
It is disappointing to see criticism on Slumdog, from the so-called patriotic celebrities.
If A.R. Rahman had given music to the movie, he would have definitely studied the movie, understood it, and would have given the music only if the movie is really good.
Track record of Rahman shows that he had always chosen movies that depict ‘Hope’, ‘Aspiration’, Patriotism.
He never chose movies that contained anti-social or anti-patriotic themes.
Rahman’s acceptance of the movie is in itself a testimony that the movie is good and that it is viewable by anyone in
India.
On the other hand, the one who started the criticism has a history of evading taxes, occupying farm lands, acting in movies that cannot be seen by all classes of people.
And, out of the blue, someone, whose name is not even known, demanding that the movie should not be seen, is ridiculous.
Is he trying to gain publicity for his name?
Or, is he ghost-writing for the person who first criticized the movie and then denied it a day after?
partiot1
January 28, 2009 at 7:03 pm