Slumdog Euphoria

I saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire a few weeks back. Before all this Golden Globe and Oscar hoopla. It came highly recommended from a variety of sources.

When I entered the theater I was surprised to see that it was almost full. And this was six weeks into its run. Normally here in the US, viewership tapers off after the first month and you will barely get twenty people for any show. (I have in fact been to a show where me and a friend were the only people in the hall!!)

Anyway, a part of me felt some pride that there was this huge crowd who wanted to see a movie about India. As the movie unfolded on the screen I began to feel a bit awkward with the way India was being depicted. With all its cliches of poverty, crime, police brutality etc.
Also I started feeling that these foreigners were not getting their money's worth because some of the best dialogues or exchanges between the child actors were in Hindi and the subtitles did not have the same impact or punch.

At the end of the movie as I was moving out I again felt that it was a good movie and still feeling good that Hollywood had attempted to make a full scale film on India with Indian actors and locales.

Later on however as I thought about it more, I realized that all this movie had glorified was the squalor, lawlessness and poverty of India. And that, more than the actual storyline or acting was what was making it popular with the western world.

Thinking more about it I realized that most of the India centric movies which have become popular here and got the awards had this same theme. Extreme poverty, resilience of the poor, exploitation and or emancipation by some enlightened foreigner. Salaam Bombay, City of Joy, Lagaan jump up immediately.

A feel good movie about the middle class like say Taare Zameen Par which did not focus on India specific issues but on something more common or western like dyslexia does not interest the mass or the class here.

Well I don't have problems with that though. Its their choice as to what they like and what they don't. Who am I to pontificate to them.
The reactions in India have as usual been wildly extreme. Some falling over themselves to gush over the movie and the way its been made etc etc just because its a Hollywood production. Others taking the standard anti-colonial stance of "How can these people show my country in this way and propagate stereotypes".

When Amitabh Bachchan said very strongly that there is an underbelly in every western city, he was right. However he did not acknowledge that there are movies made about this too over here. Hollywood has never shied away from making movies about these seamy topics. For instance LA Confidential and Serpico were about corruption in the Police Force, On the Waterfront about dock mafia, The Color Purple about racism and segragation. So the point made is not really valid. Just a means of sensationalizing or an attempt to cash in on the popularity of a topic. (A week later he recanted saying that SM was a beautiful movie and the previous comments made on his blog were not written by him after all!!!!!!!)

We need to stop being so sensitive about criticism and external approval. Why do we look at affirmation from the west that we are a modern and progressive nation.
The day we stop this and start looking inward and show more maturity in these matters, I think will mark the time that we became a nation which is respected and considered as an equal.