September 2008 was when I first heard about Danny Boyle's new film Slumdog Millionaire. It had clinched the best picture prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. Since then the film has been steadily gaining momentum steam rolling its way through the hearts of critics and audiences culminating with a big bang at the Golden Globes. Now it stands poised to make even more noise at the Oscars and I would be surprised if it does not bag some of the major awards.
What makes Slumdog stand out is the fact that it does not fit a mold. It is a genre bender that truly transcends categories mainstream cinema is so comfortable with. It is a comedy, documentary, art house film, serious social drama, suspense thriller, adventure, and straight out love story. Even though the film is partly subtitled, it does not fit the foreign film category as well, as for the most part it is an English language film. A movie like this comes around once in a while, when producers really take a risk with a small film and allow the magic of cinema to rise to new heights by pushing the envelope. As Simon Beaufoy, the screenplay writer put it, Danny Boyle took the script and really made it "fly" and that is why it resonates the way it does.
Slumdog Millionaire at its core is a straight out underdog story. A story about a boy who triumphs against all odds, making his way out of a dreadful and hostile Mumbai slum to become a "man" and win a TV game show all with a single purpose - to win his true love, his childhood sweet heart. The basic premise of the film seems to be plucked straight out of a Hindi film from the 70's. Two brothers are separated from their mother and left to fend for themselves, with a girl thrown into the mix. One grows up to be good and the other bad. The good one prevails, gets the girl and saves the day with an uplifting feel good ending. This theme was very common in the films of Amitabh Bachchan, who is paid homage to a few times in the film. One of the most unsettling scenes in the beginning of the film is built around Amitabh's helicopter landing by the slum, as a mob runs out to catch a glimpse of the super star. For those who do not know, Amitabh Bachchan is the biggest movie star Hindi cinema has ever produced. Bachchan topped a 1999 BBC News website poll to find the greatest star of the millennium, beating the likes of Marlon Brando and Charlie Chaplin. His influence on the popular culture of India is beautifully woven into the film, through dialog and visual juxtaposition.
What makes the film truly fly is its narrative structure. The film begins with Jamaal, the protagonist, being interrogated by the police as he is suspected of cheating on the popular game show, the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Jamaal is the most unlikely candidate as he is a "Chai Walla" (a boy who serves tea at the office) from the slums and is on the verge of winning the highest prize ever. And so the story begins as Jamaal begins to explain to the police inspector how he came upon the correct answers. The explanation of how he was able to arrive at the answers reveals an episode in Jamaal’s life. The film is essentially a collection of incidents in Jamaal’s life all tied together and inter-cut with the progression of the game show. It follows the transformation of Jamaal from a feisty and industrious little boy in the slums to a young man on a game show. In that journey Danny Boyle drags us through the filth of the worlds largest slum to the high reaches of the underworld and modern India of game shows and call centers, deftly capturing the complexity, energy, intensity, vibrancy and humanity of Mumbai. The film exquisitely reveals the different layers on which India exists and thrives. An idea as an Indian I have always found hard to communicate to somebody who was not born there.
The gritty and intense world of the slums in Slumdog, is reminiscent of the Favelas of the 2002 Brazilian hit City of God. While City of God was mostly preoccupied with the violence and crime of the Favela's and the children caught up in it. In contrast Slumdog while showing the violence and the unforgiving nature of that world, tries to show the humanity of its characters, and how they are able to rise above the harsh world that is dealt to them. India has one of the most appalling human rights records when it comes to religious violence, its destitute children and poverty. More children in India go hungry every day, than in any other country in Asia. Child labor is out of control and the trafficking of children is at an alarming level. The film deals with these issues in a shocking way, but never to a point where it bogs you down. And that balance it strikes keeps the viewing experience fresh, energized, entertaining and thought provoking at the same time.
It is an often expressed view that films that deal with poverty and those that show the underbelly of India always do well with Hollywood and western audiences. These themes are provocative, challenging and foreign and therefore very engaging. Amitabh Bachchan, who ironically was the first host of the highly successful Indian franchise of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, levied a criticism of this nature on Slumdog. He later retracted his statement but this is not a new sentiment. Similar criticism was expressed about fifty years ago when Satyajit Ray, India's most celebrated filmmaker, made his master piece Pather Panchali. This film dealt with rural poverty and the abject nature of it. Which was too real for some Indians to digest as Slumdog in many ways is. Indians are always irked when images of India's underbelly are portrayed on the world stage, especially by western filmmakers. It becomes a matter of pride.
While there is some truth to the fact that the "Third World" is always portrayed as being either exotic or downtrodden, when seen through the eyes of the "westerner", Slumdog defies that stereotype. I have seen many films that exoticise India all the time, through what I call the "National Geographic" POV. Where everything looks golden, colorful and bright all the time, with snake charmers and colorful village folk in soft focus, the “orientalization” of India. Slumdog does the opposite. It shows India the way it is. Films like Gandhi, A Passage to India and the Merchant Ivory productions, all big award winners, have always been fascinated by "The Raj" element of India and as a result set a standard for how the west views India. Danny Boyle on the contrary is able to get into the skin of India and show it in the most frank and honest manner. Sometimes it takes an outsider to capture that essence as they bring a fresh and untainted point of view. Slumdog exposes India in a very non-judgmental way, almost saying this is the way life is here, but you can still rise above it.
In a recent BBC interview Danny Boyle was asked if Bollywood could ever make a film like Slumdog. And his response was, "They do not have the Balls". I could not agree with him more. Bollywood to a large extent is preoccupied with formulaic film making. A kind of film making whose sole purpose is to help the audience go to a place where people always look fair, dance on a drop of a hat and communicate in an unreal hybrid dialect which only people on the silver screen speak. Bollywood is not set up to take risks and is more preoccupied with kitsch than reality. Another reason Bollywood will never make a film like Slumdog, is because it is serving an audience that is trying to get away from the sort of things that are addressed in the film. The argument that people want to go to the cinema to escape from reality is a commonly held belief. There are filmmakers within the Bollywood system who make films that are a reflection of society, but they are too few. For the most part, in the Indian context reality has to be sugar coated that is the only way it’s going to go down well with a mass audience. India makes more films per year than any other country in the world. Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan are some Asian countries who make a fraction of what India puts out, but are able to create films that are far superior in production value and content. Slumdog at the end of the day is an entertaining film, and proves that a film can have both artistic and entertainment merit, if the right talent is put into motion.
Even though Slumdog is a British production, in the talent department it is truly a collaborative endeavor. Based on a book by an Indian writer Vikas Swarup it stars Bollywood veterans, Anil Kapoor as the host of the game show and Irfan Khan, who uncannily finds his way into every Ameircan or British film about India (The Namesake, The Darjeeling Limited, A Mighty Heart, to name a few), as the inspector. The co-director Lavoleen Tandan, is an Indian who has worked with Mira Niar on the casting of her films. The music is composed and scored by A.R. Rahman, the biggest and most prolific name in Indian pop and film music. In 2002 A.R.Rahman made his West End and subsequently Broadway debut with "Bombay Dreams". He became the first Indian ever to take home a Golden Globe. With his win the Indian media has co-opted the film as though it is a Bollywood production and has been singing high praise. Winning international accolades is a huge deal for a billion strong nation.
Other than cricket, Indians seldom do well at the Olympics and other international competitive events. Only two other Indian's have ever won an Oscar. Bhanu Athaiya shared for best costume for Gandhi and Satyajit Ray was give an Honorary Oscar on his death bed, thanks to the Martin Scorsese lobby. Slumdog releases in India in January. It will have to be seen how the Indian audience warms up to a film that is creating so much buzz on the international stage. It will also have to be seen what kind of a release the film gets. Being that it is in English and has a rather artsy unconventional structure it might find an audience only in urban India.
The success of Slumdog has had many people thinking that it will open doors to Indian talent on the international scene. Sharukh Khan, a top Bollywood star was a presenter at the Golden Globes this year. Ironically he was also the host who took over when Amitabh left the Indian Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Probably that was the reason he was chosen as one of the presenters. Many people saw his presence as another acknowledgement of Bollywood’s influence. I beg to differ. Like Yoga and Chicken Tikka Masala, Bollywood has made inroads into the psyche of Americans and also into its movies (Moulin Rouge, The Love Guru, Vanity Fair etc., the list is long) but it’s only a fad. Musicals are no longer made in Hollywood and in a sense people gravitate to Bollywood with a sense of nostalgia.
The song and dance sequence in a Bollywood film has a completely different motivation and function than a song in a Hollywood musical, but it has come to brand it. Ask an American about a Bollywood film, the first image that comes to mind is the song and dance. As a result it is never taken seriously, and rightly so.
As long as Bollywood has its head in the sand and does not take the risk in making thematically poignant films, it will always be a bubble gum industry another aberration of India. The only reason Hollywood looks to India, is for the big bucks that can be made selling kitsch. (Case in point Chandni Chowk to China, a Warner Brothers Bollywood co-production)
Slumdog for all the praise has its flaws. It is never substantially explained how the characters growing up in the slums of Mumbai, in some of the most despicable and desperate circumstances come to speak English with such flare and fluency. A privilege reserved only for the upper class who can afford an English education. As a viewer the strength of the film lets you buy into it and Danny Boyle gets away with some artistic license. The film has heart and humanity. Apply good craft and you have the makings of a great film. And that is what Slumdog Millionaire pulls off where many others fail. It is what it is.
What makes Slumdog stand out is the fact that it does not fit a mold. It is a genre bender that truly transcends categories mainstream cinema is so comfortable with. It is a comedy, documentary, art house film, serious social drama, suspense thriller, adventure, and straight out love story. Even though the film is partly subtitled, it does not fit the foreign film category as well, as for the most part it is an English language film. A movie like this comes around once in a while, when producers really take a risk with a small film and allow the magic of cinema to rise to new heights by pushing the envelope. As Simon Beaufoy, the screenplay writer put it, Danny Boyle took the script and really made it "fly" and that is why it resonates the way it does.
Slumdog Millionaire at its core is a straight out underdog story. A story about a boy who triumphs against all odds, making his way out of a dreadful and hostile Mumbai slum to become a "man" and win a TV game show all with a single purpose - to win his true love, his childhood sweet heart. The basic premise of the film seems to be plucked straight out of a Hindi film from the 70's. Two brothers are separated from their mother and left to fend for themselves, with a girl thrown into the mix. One grows up to be good and the other bad. The good one prevails, gets the girl and saves the day with an uplifting feel good ending. This theme was very common in the films of Amitabh Bachchan, who is paid homage to a few times in the film. One of the most unsettling scenes in the beginning of the film is built around Amitabh's helicopter landing by the slum, as a mob runs out to catch a glimpse of the super star. For those who do not know, Amitabh Bachchan is the biggest movie star Hindi cinema has ever produced. Bachchan topped a 1999 BBC News website poll to find the greatest star of the millennium, beating the likes of Marlon Brando and Charlie Chaplin. His influence on the popular culture of India is beautifully woven into the film, through dialog and visual juxtaposition.
What makes the film truly fly is its narrative structure. The film begins with Jamaal, the protagonist, being interrogated by the police as he is suspected of cheating on the popular game show, the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Jamaal is the most unlikely candidate as he is a "Chai Walla" (a boy who serves tea at the office) from the slums and is on the verge of winning the highest prize ever. And so the story begins as Jamaal begins to explain to the police inspector how he came upon the correct answers. The explanation of how he was able to arrive at the answers reveals an episode in Jamaal’s life. The film is essentially a collection of incidents in Jamaal’s life all tied together and inter-cut with the progression of the game show. It follows the transformation of Jamaal from a feisty and industrious little boy in the slums to a young man on a game show. In that journey Danny Boyle drags us through the filth of the worlds largest slum to the high reaches of the underworld and modern India of game shows and call centers, deftly capturing the complexity, energy, intensity, vibrancy and humanity of Mumbai. The film exquisitely reveals the different layers on which India exists and thrives. An idea as an Indian I have always found hard to communicate to somebody who was not born there.
The gritty and intense world of the slums in Slumdog, is reminiscent of the Favelas of the 2002 Brazilian hit City of God. While City of God was mostly preoccupied with the violence and crime of the Favela's and the children caught up in it. In contrast Slumdog while showing the violence and the unforgiving nature of that world, tries to show the humanity of its characters, and how they are able to rise above the harsh world that is dealt to them. India has one of the most appalling human rights records when it comes to religious violence, its destitute children and poverty. More children in India go hungry every day, than in any other country in Asia. Child labor is out of control and the trafficking of children is at an alarming level. The film deals with these issues in a shocking way, but never to a point where it bogs you down. And that balance it strikes keeps the viewing experience fresh, energized, entertaining and thought provoking at the same time.
It is an often expressed view that films that deal with poverty and those that show the underbelly of India always do well with Hollywood and western audiences. These themes are provocative, challenging and foreign and therefore very engaging. Amitabh Bachchan, who ironically was the first host of the highly successful Indian franchise of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, levied a criticism of this nature on Slumdog. He later retracted his statement but this is not a new sentiment. Similar criticism was expressed about fifty years ago when Satyajit Ray, India's most celebrated filmmaker, made his master piece Pather Panchali. This film dealt with rural poverty and the abject nature of it. Which was too real for some Indians to digest as Slumdog in many ways is. Indians are always irked when images of India's underbelly are portrayed on the world stage, especially by western filmmakers. It becomes a matter of pride.
While there is some truth to the fact that the "Third World" is always portrayed as being either exotic or downtrodden, when seen through the eyes of the "westerner", Slumdog defies that stereotype. I have seen many films that exoticise India all the time, through what I call the "National Geographic" POV. Where everything looks golden, colorful and bright all the time, with snake charmers and colorful village folk in soft focus, the “orientalization” of India. Slumdog does the opposite. It shows India the way it is. Films like Gandhi, A Passage to India and the Merchant Ivory productions, all big award winners, have always been fascinated by "The Raj" element of India and as a result set a standard for how the west views India. Danny Boyle on the contrary is able to get into the skin of India and show it in the most frank and honest manner. Sometimes it takes an outsider to capture that essence as they bring a fresh and untainted point of view. Slumdog exposes India in a very non-judgmental way, almost saying this is the way life is here, but you can still rise above it.
In a recent BBC interview Danny Boyle was asked if Bollywood could ever make a film like Slumdog. And his response was, "They do not have the Balls". I could not agree with him more. Bollywood to a large extent is preoccupied with formulaic film making. A kind of film making whose sole purpose is to help the audience go to a place where people always look fair, dance on a drop of a hat and communicate in an unreal hybrid dialect which only people on the silver screen speak. Bollywood is not set up to take risks and is more preoccupied with kitsch than reality. Another reason Bollywood will never make a film like Slumdog, is because it is serving an audience that is trying to get away from the sort of things that are addressed in the film. The argument that people want to go to the cinema to escape from reality is a commonly held belief. There are filmmakers within the Bollywood system who make films that are a reflection of society, but they are too few. For the most part, in the Indian context reality has to be sugar coated that is the only way it’s going to go down well with a mass audience. India makes more films per year than any other country in the world. Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan are some Asian countries who make a fraction of what India puts out, but are able to create films that are far superior in production value and content. Slumdog at the end of the day is an entertaining film, and proves that a film can have both artistic and entertainment merit, if the right talent is put into motion.
Even though Slumdog is a British production, in the talent department it is truly a collaborative endeavor. Based on a book by an Indian writer Vikas Swarup it stars Bollywood veterans, Anil Kapoor as the host of the game show and Irfan Khan, who uncannily finds his way into every Ameircan or British film about India (The Namesake, The Darjeeling Limited, A Mighty Heart, to name a few), as the inspector. The co-director Lavoleen Tandan, is an Indian who has worked with Mira Niar on the casting of her films. The music is composed and scored by A.R. Rahman, the biggest and most prolific name in Indian pop and film music. In 2002 A.R.Rahman made his West End and subsequently Broadway debut with "Bombay Dreams". He became the first Indian ever to take home a Golden Globe. With his win the Indian media has co-opted the film as though it is a Bollywood production and has been singing high praise. Winning international accolades is a huge deal for a billion strong nation.
Other than cricket, Indians seldom do well at the Olympics and other international competitive events. Only two other Indian's have ever won an Oscar. Bhanu Athaiya shared for best costume for Gandhi and Satyajit Ray was give an Honorary Oscar on his death bed, thanks to the Martin Scorsese lobby. Slumdog releases in India in January. It will have to be seen how the Indian audience warms up to a film that is creating so much buzz on the international stage. It will also have to be seen what kind of a release the film gets. Being that it is in English and has a rather artsy unconventional structure it might find an audience only in urban India.
The success of Slumdog has had many people thinking that it will open doors to Indian talent on the international scene. Sharukh Khan, a top Bollywood star was a presenter at the Golden Globes this year. Ironically he was also the host who took over when Amitabh left the Indian Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Probably that was the reason he was chosen as one of the presenters. Many people saw his presence as another acknowledgement of Bollywood’s influence. I beg to differ. Like Yoga and Chicken Tikka Masala, Bollywood has made inroads into the psyche of Americans and also into its movies (Moulin Rouge, The Love Guru, Vanity Fair etc., the list is long) but it’s only a fad. Musicals are no longer made in Hollywood and in a sense people gravitate to Bollywood with a sense of nostalgia.
The song and dance sequence in a Bollywood film has a completely different motivation and function than a song in a Hollywood musical, but it has come to brand it. Ask an American about a Bollywood film, the first image that comes to mind is the song and dance. As a result it is never taken seriously, and rightly so.
As long as Bollywood has its head in the sand and does not take the risk in making thematically poignant films, it will always be a bubble gum industry another aberration of India. The only reason Hollywood looks to India, is for the big bucks that can be made selling kitsch. (Case in point Chandni Chowk to China, a Warner Brothers Bollywood co-production)
Slumdog for all the praise has its flaws. It is never substantially explained how the characters growing up in the slums of Mumbai, in some of the most despicable and desperate circumstances come to speak English with such flare and fluency. A privilege reserved only for the upper class who can afford an English education. As a viewer the strength of the film lets you buy into it and Danny Boyle gets away with some artistic license. The film has heart and humanity. Apply good craft and you have the makings of a great film. And that is what Slumdog Millionaire pulls off where many others fail. It is what it is.
wah, wah anand. i have yet to see the movie but enjoyed reading your thoughts. nice blog. geeta sent the link. we have a lot of issues, us indians, about art and disclosure. did you ever read this article by vikram chandra?
ReplyDeletehttp://bostonreview.net/BR25.1/chandra.html