I am really getting annoyed by the criticisms on Slumdog Milllionaire, particularly in India. I am actually not surprised that the likes of Shiv Sena, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty criticizing, but well-informed movie makers? Come on. Give me a break. I saw the movie and liked it for the movie.
It is not new that the slums are being shown in a movie. There are hundreds of movies made each year which portray slums and its dwellers. For example, take the two Oscar nominated short documentaries this year, "Smile Pinky" and "The Final Inch". Both these show India, not in an exotic or a romantic way. You get to see the slums. Please do not deny that slums are highly sanitized green rooms.
These people who criticize were fricking sleeping all the time and wake up all of a sudden when the movie becomes a hit. Who wouldn't want to take a piece of the publicity pie. These people behave is as if the people of the world were thinking that India is a rich, developed, uncorrupted and a highly moral society. Please.
Another sideshow are the claims that the kids were exploited and that the parents were demanding more money. The justification - Now that the movie is making more money why don't you share your profits. Yeah right - Now the movie makers are the devil not sharing the profits when they had signed a profit-sharing contract with royalties and copyrights to the kids' parents. Talk about exploitation!
First of all, the movie is not about the slums, it is about a person who is a slum dweller, that too only in the intial part of the movie. The movie starts in the Mumbai slums of the 80s and 90s goes on to depict how Mumbaikars have been improving. There is clearly a scene that shows that the slums do not exist anymore, instead high rise bulidings are built in that area.
The anger that is being vented is not because India is being shown wrongfully in a bad light, but because of bringing it out to the open the actual filth that exists, that too in a subtle way.
If a kid jumps in a pile of shit, it is the creative freedom that the director enjoys and does not say that every Indian would jump in a pile of shit for a movie star.
If the movie shows kids kidnapped/bought, eys removed/hands/leg amputated, for the sole purpose of making money out of begging, it is an absolute fact. If you deny that such things do not exit, then you are doing nothing but burying your head in the sand and pretending that the world doesn't exist.
If it is shown that there are people who swindle money from tourists by acting as a fake guide and that a parked car has its parts removed, it is the truth that is being told. How many times have you parked your vehicle in a place to find the vehicle itself missing, forget about its parts. Do not tell me that no one does that in India. If you stll tell me that it is not so, you are nothing but an ignorant twit and I don't have anymore patience to explain it to you.
If you thik that you are voicing your concern on a falsehood, and think that you are expressing your patroitism, my opinion is, you are not. You are just exhibiting your callowness.
In short, truth hurts. So stop being in denial, accept the harsh facts, try to deny the opportunity for future filmmakers by making things better. And yes, finally, move on and get a life. After all it is a fictitious movie and enjoy it for what it is and don't take it personally.
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