More than 40% of India's population lives below poverty line, which means that definitely more than 50% are living in worse conditions with respect to basic needs of food water and sanitation. Now I for one believe that if more than 40% are living in poverty and more than 50% in worse, then that makes a majority. So the film isnt really projecting a wrong scene because it is showcasing the majority.
Countries like USA, Australia or England also have slums, but none of these countries have 40% of their population below poverty, so they dont have to show such movies based on their country because thats not a majority for them, but for us it is. People in this forum may sit in their AC offices, and live in posh colonies and apartments but that doesnt mean that the entire India is like that. Majority of the people more than 50% live in worse conditions. --- In gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com, siddharth murthy <sida_mur...@...> wrote: > > > > > I totally agree. The fact is that the west only wants to be reassured that > the east and all the sundry countries that it presumably dominates are so > miserable and in a very dire and pathetic condition. Movies like these and > books like Arvind Adiga's that won the booker prize only make it easy. No > wonder these 'pieces of art' get international accolade. > It is another way of exercising superiority and another way of hiding from > their own (America's) terrible civil, human rights and racial discrimination > record. > > Its rather appalling to know we still have not moved on. > > Sid > > From: adit.b...@... > Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:52:46 +0530 > Subject: g_b RUTH VANITA TRASHES SLUMDOG AND CALLS IT "An Updated Drain > Inspector's Report" > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/02/23/opinion/guest/guest71.txt > > > Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 > By RUTH VANITA > > > > > > > > > > Gandhi famously termed Katherine Mayoâs book âMother Indiaâ (1927) a > âdrain inspectorâs reportâ because it focused exclusively on > atrocities, and seemed to assert that âthe drains are India.â âSlumdog > Millionaireâ is that report updated. At a paradigmatic moment in the film, > an Indian boy brutally beaten by an Indian adult tells a horrified American > couple, âYou wanted to see the real India n here it is.â Holding him > tenderly, the American woman gives him a hundred-dollar bill, and replies, > âHereâs the real America, son.â No irony is indicated. The real India > is a place of horror, the real America a place of compassion, and it takes a > Britisher to see what no Indian director could. > > > After witnessing Jamal tortured by policemen, orphaned in a riot, nearly > blinded by gangsters, nearly killed by a middle class family on a train, > betrayed by his brother, repeatedly derided and beaten, and his girlfriend > raped and almost prostituted, I wondered what was next n a battered wife, > perhaps? Sure enough, his girlfriend appeared with a black eye bestowed by > her live-in master. That such horrors occur in India is tragic. But when all > of them befall one person in the course of 18 years the result is unwittingly > farcical, recalling the sufferings inflicted by Tom Sawyer on Jim in > âHuckleberry Finn.â Itâs as if a black child in the U.S. were sold by > his parents, lynched by the Klan, sodomized by a priest, caught in a school > shooting, mutilated in a race riot, and beaten by the police, all in 18 years. > > > Unsurprisingly, the film is controversial in India and is running to > near-empty theaters there, even while it is acclaimed in the West. Early in > âSlumdog,â Jamal is locked into an outhouse and wants to get out to see a > film star so he jumps in the pit and emerges unrecognizable, coated in > excreta. As an Indian, I felt as if the film poured excreta on much I hold > dear. For instance, the beautiful song âDarshan do Ghanshyam�â (âShow > yourself to me, Krishna, dark as a cloud; my eyes thirst for youâ) by blind > medieval poet Surdas is familiar to schoolchildren in north India. But when > Jamal, on the show that makes him a millionaire, is asked who wrote it, he > knows only because gangsters taught it to the children they blinded. > > > > > > > Unbelievably, his school in the slum, instead of teaching such poems, teaches > âThe Three Musketeersâ in English! Perhaps thatâs where Jamal learns > the English that enables him to communicate perfectly with the American > couple? If so, heâs a uniquely lucky slum child. > > > It is one thing to use the cinematic grammar of fantasy and quite another to > repeatedly violate internal logic. Jamal is asked what Ram holds in his hand. > Every Indian knows this, just as every American knows that Christ died on a > cross. But Jamal knows it only because a Hindu mob set fire to his home. This > is like an American who has never encountered the cross except when the Klan > burns one. > > > In the novel âQ&A,â on which the movie is based, the hero Ram Mohammad > Thomas (symbolizing secular India) is called Ram. Director Danny Boyle, in > the interests of political correctness, makes Jamal a Muslim. In âQ&A,â > the TV show hostâs antagonism to Ram is explained by a previous > association; in âSlumdog,â his unexplained hostility is typical of nasty, > classist Indians. This hostility defeats the purpose of such shows (the myth > that anyone can succeed) and is untrue to reality n both hosts of the > real-life Indian show were friendly with all competitors, regardless of > class. If they had got one arrested and tortured, as the host in > âSlumdogâ does, the show would have shut down. > > > Boyle denies being inspired by Bollywood, even though Bombay movies have > consistently developed the rags-to-riches narrative as a paean to human > endeavor. Bombay movies are just as gritty as âSlumdogâ in their > depiction of violence; what they have and âSlumdogâ lacks is warmth. The > Hindi movie hero typically has a girlfriend, one or more close buddies, and a > community in the slum. Boyleâs hero, Jamal, obeying the modern heterosexual > imperative, acquires a girlfriend, but the unremitting nastiness of every > other character (with the partial exception of his brother) leaves him in a > chilling isolation uncharacteristic of Indian cinema and society. > > > âShantaram,â an autobiographical novel by an Australian, set in Bombay, > presents a far richer picture of life in a slum. If the forthcoming movie > reproduces the novelâs complexity, it will be interesting to see whether it > wins any awards. > > > Ruth Vanita is a professor of liberal studies at the University of Montana, > and writes from Missoula. > -- > Do not print this mail unless really necessary. > Save paper, save trees..!! > > > If you loose your way while SCUBA diving, the safest direction to head for is > UP..!!! > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Invite your mail contacts to join your friends list with Windows Live Spaces. > It's easy! > http://spaces.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mkt=en-us >
