Reality of SLUMGOG
Slumdog literally defecates on India from the first frame. Some scenes exist only in the perverted imagery of director Danny Boyle, because they are not in the book of Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat, on which the film is based. In the book, the hero of the film (who is not Muslim, but belongs to many religions: Ram Mohammad Thomas) does not spend his childhood in Bombay, but in a Catholic orphanage in Delhi. Jamal’s mother is not killed by “Hindu fanatics’, but she abandons her baby, of unknown religion, in a church. Jamal’s torture is not an idea of the television presenter, but of an American who is after the Russian who bought the television rights of the game. The tearful scene of the three children abandoned in the rain is also not in the book: Jamal and his heroine only meet when they are teenagers and they live in an apartment and not in a slum.
it is east andheri
Oscars are a joke anyhow. People should make up their own minds about what a good movie is and what isn't, not what they are told is a good movie and what isn't.
WHY ? BCOZ U DONNT HAVE ANY OSCOR
THOMAS
I know you mean Andheri....then is it West or East?
I am from Bombay Central.
U r 200% correct
I bet on the city is the best. Once you live in Mumbai, you can not like any other place on this planet.
BTW: which part of Bombay are you?
I am from Anheri
I am one of them who could swear by the City that NO Place on Earth is Better and Safer Than AAMCHI MUMBAI
Another thing that I hav seen abt Mumbai is that eventho it has everything that one could hate, the people living there swear by the city like its the best place on earth. The city kinda grows on you, I guess!
jiya: Shantaram? with an Indian director? hav heard all sorts of names associated with it from Johnny Depp to Amitabh
what you said is absolutely right....ppl are creating such a hullabaloo just cos they feel ashamed that the most well guarded dirty secrets of india was portrayed in such a beautiful way and suddenly the international community has looking at the rocket-launching and nuclear super-power India in a new light.....in the light of the naked truth.
why shy away from it?own up!it's our country!and no matter what ppl think about it,have the will to say "so what?"
it's like ur mom was a labourer and she worked so hard to bring you up and then one day someone shoots a documentary on the plight of the labour class and ur mom gets filmed and you go all wild coz they didn't show ur mom in her sunday best!wth??
Jiya
i have read 'Shantaram' and i heard a movie is coming out based on it (with shahrukh khan!!!noooooooo!!!!).as far as i know,it has portrayed indian slum life in the raw.now let's see how an 'indian director' gets his act together.
i have nothing against indian directors....i think they are simply brilliant.my point is....why bother about who made the dish?as long as it's delicious,just eat it and enjoy it.....instead of arguing why the same dish made by another chef wasn't so tasty.....duh!
Jiya
No matter what is there in the book. Movie tells about India reality. There still exist child prostitution in India that is true and movie show that. Some people still kidnap children, cut their hand made them blind and ask them to beg for them which still exist in India and movie show that. Corruption is very common and rich people buy police and ministers to get what they want from law. There are many such issues still exist in 21st century of India which movie able to show. This is the fact why some of the people like Amita Bachhan has also criticize this movie since it is not showing rosy picture of India where as all Hindi movies do.
No one is defending anything.
What we are trying to say is there are far more better movies made on indian slums in India by Indians but no recognition.
Compared to many of the earlier indian movies on the topic there is not a single international award.
Guess, awards are given to movies with good promotional (pre lunch) activities rather than the content of movie or is it also based upon WHO make the movie - OR the combination of both.
http://www.qatarliving.com/node/346512
http://www.qatarliving.com/node/388535
Jai Hind!
c'mon ppl.....u can't be seriously arguing about this.if ppl are getting so wild about it,it just shows that indians are just trying to cover up something that exists...coz they are ashamed of the truth!why be so?it's all this and more that makes India what it is today.anybody who's been to mumbai and has been part of the daily humdrum would agree that most of the movie is believable.it's only those who haven't seen the real mumbai who'd go on arguing just for the sake of it.
what hasn't that city been thru?bomb blasts.....terrorist attacks.....recession.....underworld....you name it,they have it.but nothing...NOTHING is big enough to dampen their spirit....and that's their strength.their unimaginble resilience is what makes the city and her children so powerful in spite of any drawback.
Jai Ho!
Jiya
well said vgn.
Maybe a good film but wrong one to get oscars for the reasons you said.
The Indian movies, unlike American or British movies are not so familiar to the world. Maybe the Indian culture and dialects are not so familiar to the outside world. For that matter even within India you will find such vide range of dialects and cultures. Many good films made in different Indian languages won’t even get a national acclaim leave out being seen by the people outside. Slum dog having won so many Oscars, got widely discussed and got watched by many people around the world. Many of them are watching an Indian movie for the first time in life. Slumdog showing a bad face of India, could leave behind a poor first impression about the life in India. I think this is the reason behind such a hue and cry against Slum dog. Off course no one can deny that India has got a rosy face as well.
Do boys in Indian slums jump into the shit anyway? I cann't guess it even.
Is your issue about it not being the same as the book, or because yo uthink it gives India a bag image?
I think you have not read my post correctly.
It is there.
Movie is based on a book written by Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat.
Critics say this movie has portrayed the slums of Mumbai in a "biased" manner. I haven't seen the movie and won't see it either. What is so "biased" in it anyway?
Hey Maa look at me....what no one wants to see....much too young to focus but too old to see!
You should see the movie "Marley and Me" it was such a disaster compared to the book!
"Ali Baba and 40 thieves" are now "Ali Baba and 30 thieves" ; 10 were laid off.
feel to it...
See I went to India recently, and unfortuantely I am already aware of the slum situation there, so this movie didn't shock me, but I loved the whole inspired rags to riches thing... and for me, the way his brother basically 'sacrificed' himself for Salim and Latika brings home the truth old saying of Blood is always thicker than water....
What I saw was a wonderful movie of people doing whatever they can to pull themselves up in life, and to know that you have to know where they came from to be inspired.
I didn't give a thought to the Indian slums I had seen while there....
"if you don't like the heat... get out of the kitchen... but stop trying to fan the flames before you leave... it will burn you on the a** as you go through the doorway...." ME
visit www.qaws.org
cinemas ...
To be honest I don't watch movies much... someone told me to watch this slumdog and he gave this movie in his USB ..
Yea i know you how much you like peanut butter and chocolate :-D
i find this movie to be soooo uplifting and positive. the film is poignant while being humorous. but i do understand that Indians would feel bad since the dark side of India was higlighted. they, of course, would feel emotional about it.
my fave scene is the toilet, of course, because it is not only hilarious but it is also a manifestation of how determine and passionate young jamal is when it comes to his goals. and by those qualities, he succeeded later.
mo lang!
Riiiight.
So arguably Danny Boyle's most famous movie prior to Slumdog was Trainspotting.
A movie about drug addicts living in Scotland. The most famous scene involves a toilet. I won't elaborate.
And now you're saying he doesn't like India and the point of the movie was to portary it as a slum compared to the west.
I don't think your argument is all that watertight, frankly.
lol, Oscars has been over for weeks now and still this hasn't died down.. oh well, some must be entertained by this...moving on...
what is so hard to digest for some people in this movie that keeps them still b**ching abt it.....even i watched it and found it was a entertaining movie like many other.
Aana free, jaana free,
Pakde gaye tho khana free.
The last movie based on India that got an award by a foriegn director i think was Gandhi?
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HE WHO DARES WINS
cynbob: LOL @ "Indian human spirit"....and for every such human spirit ther are half a dozen thats waiting to pull it down! :-p
provide the source of your info.
Don't take it very seriously, movies are made commercially; there are 1000 movies released in a year. Watch, enjoy and forget it. It is not 100% based on reality cinema but mix with movie stunts. India is a vast country with variety of multi cultures people and traditions. This movie is just a love story of an individual from mumbai slum based on a novel.
Peace
Jai Ho!
and
Tally-ho!
Jackmohan.. If he had made a movies based on his own country it would have not got an Oscar..lol
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HE WHO DARES WINS
Winn, it sounds as if people didn't focus on the beautiful human spirit that prevailed throughout the film.
That's why the Indians should be proud! Despite all of the adverse conditions, the Indian human spirit conquered and prevailed.
How narrow minded. How sad for those that did not recognize the most redeeming factor in this film.
cynbob: The hoopla, supposedly,is tht the makers of the movie foused entirely on the dark shades without showing a single good thing. But thts their call, I guess.
You're right. The slums exist. They cannot be denied.
Is the reality of filming the slums in Slumdog Millionaire the problem for others?
I guess I am so used to movies depicting the "darker shades" of American life that I don't get what all the hoopla is about.
Jai Ho!
Well, as for everything, india has also got its bright and dark shades. it might be true that Slumdog goes around collecting those dark shades, but that doesnt deny that those shades exist.
I guess skd has a point when he says the story and its characters were so much altered. It seems somewhat like shooting Da vinci code with Langdon as a pagan worshipper. Turns the story on its head, doesnt it? But again, far be the day when a director/scrpt writer is prevented from adding the right kinda spice that would sell his work in the international market.
"Jai Ho" to artistic liberty!!
If it was me.....I would have made a movie on all the bad aspects of Danny Boyle's home country....(mind you not a single positive scene) and it will include the only positive scene in the whole film....a Patel..saying ..."You want to see the good side of India?...this is it.
....and dedicate it to Danny Boyle.
I just love it when people ask me if I have a horse 'cause I live in Texas. After all, how else do Texans get around the grange to tend to their oil rig?
OR
I must be hangin' with my home-girls lookin' to make the next score because I'm American.
Like PM stated before, this might just be the problem with Slumdog. Indians don't want the international public to see the slums of India because of the generalizations that will be made about their country and people.
We, Americans, are so used to the generalizations---what the hell and who cares what people think.
I think it really comes down to what kind of films your watching... There are tonnes of different genres out there, not all movies these days are gritty down to earth dramas.
I agree that the movies of yesteryear are just that- classical.
Since times have changed, movies today depict the era in which we live. I like that some Westernized movies try to be as real as possible. That gives the movie integrity and does not insult the movie goer.
We are able to take the Hollywood movies for what they are and learn lessons from the few that contain vital messages.
Perhaps, if there are more Indian-based films that are brought to the US audiences, Indians will get used to the publicity and learn to handle it accordingly.
we have to take movies to heart... isn't it what most people watch and then assume we westerners are really like? How can we forget we are nothing but hookers and drug dealers... cause thats what the movies say;-)
Come on Professor, you teach this stuff don't you?
"if you don't like the heat... get out of the kitchen... but stop trying to fan the flames before you leave... it will burn you on the a** as you go through the doorway...." ME
visit www.qaws.org
I think, now the world is a smaller place, I think most educated people take things tongue in cheek.
We know America has it's share of violence and other problems but all countries do.
As you say, pictures are now ( I think) made to put bums on seats and not perhaps be as clasical as they were.
My thoughts are my own, but I doubt my Mum would agree with some of them.
it was a british movie
It is amusing how much "ammunition" American movies give to the international public that love to hate us. ;)
we can all do that.
My thoughts are my own, but I doubt my Mum would agree
with some of them.
I wonder if you find the American movies entertaining that depict American youths joining gangs and becoming gangsters and/or young American girls that are sexually violated?
Or is it just this film that you find offensive?
Many movies do not represent the "good side" of the USA.
Yet, they are seen by many around the world and some even earn Academy Awards.
These movies are stories and dramatized for box office audiences.
The good news about bringing these unsavory "sides" of
movies to the big screen is that people become aware of these troubled people/areas and work can begin to improve upon them.
Hactually i completely misread what he said... Damn my head is fuzzy.
You should see some of the films that are shown in England about England. They do reflect some of the seedier sides of England but not all and then we have nice films about England.
Nobody can wear rose tinted glasses about their own countries. They have all got seedy sides to them.
Most films do not reflect the book. That is the 'beauty' of artistic people. Books and plays are open to interpretation. (Sound of Music is not the story about the Von Trapp family. It was changed into a mulicoloured money maker about a singing Nun who made hideous clothes from curtains.)
It seems a sad book anyway, a mother abondoning her baby etc. Still torture in it by all accounts.
Yet the chap that wrote it ok to add those elements to his book and that was his country he was writing about.
My thoughts are my own, but I doubt my Mum would agree with some of them.
reasons..... one point to be noted that a movie represents a Country culture like the Slums .... I felt it is an insult for the country showing a boy named 'Jamal' jumping in 'SHIT' (my wife just vomited and did not eat the food next day)... also when Jamal's brother joins a gang and becomes a gangster in such a young age and a young girl in sex industry...
I don't know how they celebrated the Oscar awards but to be honest this movie does not represent good side of India ...
This is my personal view on this movie:-)
I agree with you and who cares for the movie.
it is a british movie with some Indian actors with an Indian story.
Its only some of us Indians have raised a hue and cry for it being an Indian movie - pity them.
It is USUAL for movies to be different than the story told in books. Slumdog Millionaire is no exception.
Often, readers of a book will be grossly disappointed in the movie based on the book read. Thus, it is not unusual to hear, "Oh, the book is so much better than the movie."
Often, the movie writers will add/delete and come up with a screen play that they think will be appealing to audiences that will buy the tickets at the box office.