By now just about everyone knows the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" was the big winner at this year's Oscars. Eight awards, including best picture will be on every ad for the movie over the next little while.
I don't go to movies often, in fact, I hardly go at all. I've been disappointed by so many, even those with much critical hype attached.
Yet there I was Monday, with my wife, going to the local multiplex to check out Slumdog. Part of what made me go was a dinner conversation over the weekend about whether the film accurately portrays the slum life of Mumbai. That debate was the projection of a larger controversy, with many Indians, including filmmakers, highly critical of Slumdog.
Of course, there's nothing quite like seeing for yourself. The first thing that struck me about the movie-going experience was the annoying volume of the sound. This obviously wasn't the film's fault, but I came away with ear fatigue from all the explosive punctuations Surround Sound pounded through my ear canal. Good sound should never leave your ears pounding.
That having been said, the film was quite well done, even if the story line was a bit sappy. Was it exploitative? I didn't think so, but then, I'm not Indian.
I thought back to another portrayal of slum life, the highly regarded Brazilian film "City of God". I remarked to my wife that there were few if any charges of exploiting slum life against that picture.
She pointed out that "City of God", while critically acclaimed, didn't win an Oscar, much less eight the way Slumdog did. Maybe Hollywood's embrace of a film not part of India's thriving Bollywood cinema scene was part of what troubled people?
What ought to trouble people, in the end, is that slums like those in Mumbai and Rio exist in the first place. We think the world has come so far in the 21st century. For me, the power of "Slumdog Millionaire" is the reality that we've got so far to go.
What do you think? Does "Slumdog Millionaire" exploit the poor of Mumbai?
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4 comments:
I think the charge is silly. It may be able to help them, and other slums, by pushing the situation into the global consciousness. I have never seen Mumbai, but I have lived in Brazil and visited New Delhi, and the idea that a movie like that is "exploiting" those people strikes me as even more far-fetched than the story-line of the movie.
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