January 15th, 2009
Slumdog Millionaire’ might be a big Golden-Globe winning movie and an Oscar hopeful but the biggest superstar in the country isn’t so impressed with it.
The movie based in Mumbai won four Golden Globe awards on Sunday, including one for music composer A R Rahman, a first for an Indian.
But Big B has other views about the film.
He says that the rags-to-riches tale of an orphan from a Mumbai slum didn’t impress him as it portrayed India as a “Third World dirty underbelly developing nation”.
Big B has written on his blog- “It’s just that the SM (Slumdog Millionaire) idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a Westerner, gets creative Globe recognition. The other would perhaps not,”
“If the movie projects India as a third world dirty underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations.”
“Conditions world over are so similar. Perceptions differ, but the reality of life and existence, unchanged. Comments for the film Slumdog Millionaire and the anger by some on its contents, prompt me to say the above.”
‘The commercial escapist world of Indian cinema has vociferously battled for years, on the attention paid and adulation given to legendary Satyajit Ray at all prestigious film festivals of the West and not a word of appreciation for the entertaining mass-oriented box office blockbusters that were being churned out from Mumbai.”
“The argument: Ray portrayed reality. The other escapism, fantasy and incredulous posturing. Unimpressive for Cannes, Berlin and Venice. But look at how rapidly all that is changing.”
But Irrfan Khan, a cast member who plays a police inspector in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, has rejected criticism of that kind.
He says, “If anyone has any objection to the depiction of poverty in the film they should first come forward and take initiative to remove it. Only talking won’t help.We can not shut our eyes from the fact that a large section of our country continues to live abject poverty which can not be removed by not being shown in a film. We need to work on grass-root level to remove this problem.”
