I fully agree with the views expressed by Amitabh Bachchan and director Priyadarshan about Slumdog Millionaire.
I do not comment about its cinematic value, but this movie is poised to do a lot of damage to the Indian image globally. With all the awards and nominations, it is sure to get a lot of international audience. And all those who do not know India will believe that India is like the way it is shown in that movie. It took two decades to change western perception that India is the land of Sadhus and snake charmers. And this movie will wash some of that efforts.
Why do we need to change west’s perception about India? Because we need business, collaborations and nevertheless the global education. We were under developed, and we still are. But there is a lot of difference in India of 50s and 60s and India of 21st centaury.
But I wonder why is that westerners like the poor and slum image of india and not the better (realistic) one.
Here is what Priyadarshan has to say about this movie.
Some excerpts:
' 'Slumdog Millionaire' is nothing but a cheap trashy mediocre version of those commercial films about estranged brothers and childhood sweethearts that Salim-Javed used to write so brilliantly in the 1970s. And please quote me clearly on this. If the Golden Globe and Oscars committees have chosen to honour this trashy film it just shows their ignorance of world cinema,”
'I saw the film with a mixed audience at the Toronto Film Festival. The Westerners loved it. All the Indian hated it. The West loves to see us as a wasteland, filled with horror stories of exploitation and degradation. But is that all there's to our beautiful city of Mumbai?'
4 comments:
Just wanted to know, apart from this, how do you rate the movie on cinematic value?
Bee Bee: I did not comment on cinematic value as I am no expert in this field, but as a comman viewer I would rate it 4 out of 10. There is nothing new in story, no great acting (all have performed ok but none great). Direction is good.
Welcome to my blog. :-)
well, i would differ from the views which say the movie will stereotype the indian image.
there have been so many movies by indian directors also - RGV, others which say the same story abt mumbai and its slums. then, why suddenly this movie? i think, we should rather be proud that our indian picture can be made worth of showing on the world celluloid. reality, at leat, is much better than having the unrealistic singing dancing around the trees.
'this is england' didn't stereotype british image.
'city of gods' didn't stereotype brazilian image.
if something is not good, what's wrong in hiding it.
in a way i feel this movie at least has put indian actors,musicians at world class level !
Dear Anonymous: Yes, there has been movies by RGV and others showing slums and underworld etc. But those never got such huge international audiance as is the case with SDM.
I am not saying that we should hide the "reality". But perhaps the reality of today is far better than what is shown in the movie.
As for other movies mentioned by you, ok. But I am not concerned by other countries. I feel, this film is doing a great damage to image of India internationally.
Otherwise I too am happy about some indians winning international awards.
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