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Desi News Corp - Desi News - Feb 09 - Index

mindSET
Slumdog days
Many Indians have reacted negatively to Slumdog
Millionaire. How do Canadian desis see it?
Top dog or under dog?
I can’t believe the tamasha that
is being created over Slumdog
Millionaire. Whether the movie
wins big at the Oscars or not is
not the point. The real issue is
that a movie about India has
made it without spoofing India
and Indian films (Bollywood Hollywood,
Bride & Prejudice) or glorifying
its so-called mystic nature
(The Mistress of Spices). Slumdog
Millionaire is inspirational masala!
It is a little movie with a big
heart. What remains to be seen
is how many of us have the big
heart to embrace it.
– DEV MANDREKAR
Wanted: A positive spin
Frankly, I find this fascination
with poverty and filth revolting.
Why can’t the world focus
on the positives for a
change? Why can’t they find
something other than slums to
make movies about?
– SHRAWAN TYAGI
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Fertile imagination or the true picture?
Poor Danny Boyle! He would never have guessed what he was
letting himself in for when he decided to make Slumdog Millionaire.
They say any publicity is publicity, but the past few weeks, all
Boyle’s been doing is defending his actions when he should rightfully
have been enjoying his moments in the spotlight. He is being
accused of all sorts of ridiculous things. He depicts India in a
bad light, they say. Are we all blind? Can we not see the slums in
every city in India? Do we not see thousands of little Jamal Maliks
begging on local trains in Mumbai or Latikas looking for treasures
in piles of garbage? When I was a kid, I was always told to
hold tightly on to my mother’s or father’s hands when we went
into crowded bazars. My parents would point to maimed children
begging at street corners and tell me if I was not careful, I would
be kidnapped and forced to beg. There were horror stories of
how gangs broke the limbs of children and then set them at grotesque
angles to strengthen the tug at the heartstrings. Ask anyone
of my generation and they will all tell you they heard similar
stuff. Can’t all be attributed to the fertile imaginations of our
parents, so why are we all so upset with Boyle? – JAVED SYED-ALI
Dollars and rupees
Director Danny Boyle is being
accused of having taken
advantage of slum children. He
reportedly paid them between
$1000 and $3000 each. We all
know that child actors in Hollywood
would have earned a lot
more, but has anyone bothered
to find out how much a Bollywood
director would have paid
a child from a slum?
– SHAILI SAWH
A slumdog by any other name
A Indian news channel took slum dwellers to see Slumdog to
gauge their reaction. They all liked the movie. Enough said! One
man said he felt bad about being called a slumdog. I can imagine
how hurt he must have felt, but with all due respect, what of the
movies in which Amitabh Bachchan has been called a gandi naaley
ka keeda (literally, an insect or a worm from a drain, but close
enough to a slumdog). I saw no protests then. – DEBOJIT SUR
Politically motivated?
The whole brouhaha over
Slumdog Millionaire is politically
motivated. There’s a section of
Indians which is hugely upset,
no doubt, but I believe that
there are also those who are
being manipulated by interested
parties. I read somewhere that
a slum dweller has sued director
Danny Boyle for the way
life in a Mumbai slum has been
depicted. You want me to believe
he wasn’t set up to do so?
When a situation gets so politically
charged, even an intelligent
actor and filmmaker like
Aamir Khan feels it’s more prudent
to say he has not seen the
movie when asked for his views
on the Oscar contender.
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February 2009 Desi News 19