Two months ago, no one would have thought that Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” would strike the right chord with the audience all over the world at the level we see today. Now that it has won millions of hearts abroad, a section of the so called critics have raised the question of how India, particularly Mumbai is represented in the movie. If you go by their point of view, then naturally the questions arises, “Is India still the ‘Slumdog’ for an outsider?”

In less than a week from now, India gears up to watch a movie which has won 4 Golden Globe Awards, nominated for 11 BAFTA awards and could possibly be nominated for a handful of Academy Awards. Based on Vikas Swarup’s “Q and A”, the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” is directed by Danny Boyle, a well known filmmaker from Scotland. Some critics describe his style of filmmaking as the ZipZapZoom style and a fetish for shooting a scene from all possible angles except the obvious! Do watch his film, “Trainspotting” to understand his style and narration techniques he uses in his films.And 12 years after “Trainspotting”, Danny is back with a marvellous story of a guy from the slums of Mumbai who goes on to win 20 Million Rupees on a quiz show…”Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”.

Coming back to the debate, in the movie, the story is set amidst the slums of Mumbai, followed by the environs around the Taj and back to Mumbai. And quite true to its title, you can expect to see some not so rosy things on screen. As the camera zipzapzooms across the gutters, filthy lanes, slums which spread across miles, some section of the audience do raise a question if this represents an India which a film has to depict? Amitabh Bachchan, the BigB of Bollywood, was among the first to raise this point on how India is depicted in Slumdog Millionaire on his blog…here’s the excerpt from his blog…

“If SM projects India as Third World dirty under belly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky under belly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations. Its just that the SM idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a Westerner, gets creative Globe recognition. The other would perhaps not…” (click here for the full post)

Immediately our newschannels and websites were on their toes to interpret the statement in their own way, thereby generating a huge debate. I still think that, what this movie depicts has got nothing to do with how the west perceives us. Of course, some elements still exist like the fetish for Taj Mahal, Call Centres but then they could perhaps be the most obvious thing possible in the plot. Personally, I still stand with the other chunk of the world, which believes in the beauty of this movie. The overwhelming sense of optimism and energy which the characters have in the movie is a standard which the rest of the mainstream cinema has to look upto!

Whatever maybe the case, whether you like it or not, the film at some level raises a question about our perception. At the end of the day, I still wonder, if I should join the debate….

Is it an Indian Movie made by an Outsider? or A Foreign film based on an Indian Story?….

Join the discussion…share your thoughts here…

By,

Hemanth