Slumdog Millionaire ... what should movies be like

Nothing wrong in showing poverty.....Indians should be ashamed of those slums......

Movies above all should be well made and intelligent with good scripts, realistic acting and good direction and cinematography. Indian films usually fail on all these accounts except for cinematography. They continue to churn out cheesy musical melodramas where the acting is so OTT as to be camp and they are as subtle as a sledgehammer. They do not give the audience any credit at all.

Of course Slumdog, Millionaire is a superb movie but Indian it certainly ain't. It's a British/US movie starring Indian actors which is something totally different. Roddy Doyle is the director.

I watched Chandni Chowk to China and have rarely been so insulted by a movie's sheer stupidity. I'd have walked out if it weren't for my wife! I later watched Revolutionary Road and the contrast--though a comparison is absurd!--couldn't have been sharper. Till India makes movies like the latter they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of having their cinema taken seriously as Art in the Western world. Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Spanish and Iranian cinema have all learned this lesson.

Naqsh, Roddy Doyle is the Irish writer. The director is Danny Boyle.

Of course Amitabh is not incorrect when he says that “If Slumdog Millionaire projects India as 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.�


Amitabh is an idiot. Amitabh is allies with the same political elite that perpetuates the very poverty depicted in the movie and he dares talk about murky underbellies in other countries. Yes, they do exist. So what? That excuses India or gives it a free pass? Can he name any developed country that has the kind of sordid underbelly India has?

Re: # 2 Movie production is money making business , economics. Producers know what can be sold. For him is very serious economic venture he has no much luxury. Those who do not put money on line has luxury to produce " art" movies unless govt or NGOs are under writing.If "art" movies can make money in large amounts they can easily do that. Market place decides what is made marketed.

Re: # 5 Movies should be pleasant for mind and make happy so they can be "too" realistic. Why one should pay money to look at ugly actors and actresses. That is it self unrealistic. Art movie itself may be "elitist" thing. I do not know as had not seen movies for decades also can not see also. I always feel people are wrong and do not speak truth when they say looks does not matter. Or even more color complexion some say does not matter. One person criticised me many times as my bias for fair color. He once wtote childish like we should be color blind , myself and most will be colorblind when we are dead. Down with snobish art things.

"Can he name any developed country that has the kind of sordid underbelly India has?"

And even when they do, they have no problems depicting anything anyone likes in their movies. We need to develop that level of confidence.

(At the same time, we should also oppose wilful misrepresentation of the kind that has unfortuantely appeared in some of Mr Shantanu Dutta's own earlier writings on chowk.)

Re: # 2 You may have point in west , where most basic needs are met and with good amount of sexual content in social milleu. There may be true best acting is no acting. Where people will not be interested in seeing "nice life" style, good houses, sufficient food etc.
Here is different thing. Here physical life is hard and poor and lack of basic necessities are not met. Majority have no homes compared to west even for middle class. Real things on ground from karach to lahore is Kacchi abadi and slums, no power, no water, no sanitation and for many no food. That is real picture. Even well doing families do not feel best when they know that just few100 yards away is misery, heart breaking poverty, death.
So cinema tries to sell dreams and not real existing real nightmares. So people spend money to forget the present and slip in wishful dream world where all men and women are good looking and hero is poor but virtious and villans are rich and bad looking etc. If you go to any big city or small towns in Pakistan you will come across harrassement for women for many young educated, unmarried ( some times married)lonely, shy sex obsessed and sex starved men and talk filthy about women. For such huge class of men movie is good with full masala, romance and that leads to some sublimation and give chance to release all anger frustaration and become calm. Movie is doing that things successfully.
But it is always intrigueing to see all skakespears major plays that are survived are tragedies Hamlet, Kinglear, MacBeth, Othollo may be sorrow touches deeply our hearts than light funful things.
sorry for transgration about topic at hand.

The movie was made by a guy who saw scotland through an equally gritty lens, so its consistent.

I thought it was actually a very charming portrayal of the underbelly we all know exists. People who havent lived thru that reality are offended, because by virtue of being indian they think its a comment on their life and hence they think its off the mark. Its not. If anything its too optimistic.

Re: # 2
[I watched Chandni Chowk to China and have rarely been so insulted by a movie's sheer stupidity. I'd have walked out if it weren't for my wife!]

That's interesting, Naqshbandit miaN!

I never heard you utter such harsh words against the "International Gorillay" movie!

International Gorillay (1990)
Starring: Mustafa Qureshi, Babra, Ghulam Mohiudin, Javed Shaikh, Neeli, Afzal Khan
Director: Jan Mohammad
Synopsis: Sensational epic where dastardly Salman Rushdie sets out to destroy Islam

I said this earlier on UP.

I must start with the disclaimer that it was not my idea to go see this movie – I was sort of drafted into doing it. But, having gone and done the deed – here are my two words on it.

I am not big on movies which try to make use of the “ethnic� angle to score brownie points with Western audiences which – thankfully a lot less now than in the past – take the events depicted through such movies as the Gospel truth. A good movie can leave a lasting impression without having crutches of the kind that were shown in this movie.

I found this movie to be a specimen of the typical “class-B� Bollywood formula concoction – except that it was made for Western consumption. If I were that member of the Western audience, I would be VERY puzzled by it. The events were highly improbable, the sense of injustice/outrage all made-up, the plot line totally artificial, and many of the scenes were made deliberately disgusting (which one would never run into in real life). And if all of that were not bad enough, the music and dialog were both too loud.

It was rather pathetic to watch a bunch of ABCD actors/actresses trying to sound more authentic than the Indian-born ones. I have no doubt where most of these “fresh� faces are headed – the dustbin of the movie world!

Frankly, if I were you, I would not waste my hard-earned ten bucks and my even harder-earned afternoon of rest/recreation watching it on big screen. In any case, it is my understanding that, typical of how it goes with many “new releases� from Bollywood – a pirated copy of the flick is already making the rounds!

bj sahib,

as a movie international gorrillay was awful. pakistan's film industry --that's being generous!--is even worse than india's although recent films like khuda keliye and ramchand pakistani suggest that things could be looking up.

ahmadmadani sahib i agree with most of what u say. amitabh is an idiot. not even the worst slum in any western country compares with the terrible conditions which avail in india. that's a harsh reality indians have to accept despite the tremendous economic growth in india. it is still a third world country where more than half the world's poor live.

I went with my daughter to see. My comment was "beautiful", I could not think of anyother word to describe how I felt after watching it.

It portrayed so many aspects -

brother + brother relationship,
Jamal's absolute resolve and belief to get what he wanted whether it was Bachchan's autograph, his girl friend, Anil Kapoor's enticement to cheat, Irfan Khans interrogations;

Salim's fatalistic opportunism and intelligence.

Above all it shows people do have dreams and determination even if they are called slumdogs of Mumbai. What is lacking is right education to dream right.

My thought was going to Kasab, while watching it. I wished he was more like Jamal and not Salim. Evil people are around them to recruit for their cause.

Re: # 12

Naqshbandi:

I watched Ramchand Pakistani and I was disappointed. After watching it, I was wondering what was in it that was movie material.

Other Pakistani movies that I have recently watched are: Khamosh Pani, and Khuda Ke Liye.

I loved Khamosh Pani, and felt director and actors could not do justice to Khuda Ke Liye. Someone of Danny Boyle's caliber and A.R. Rahman's music talents should remake it, it is a powerful theme for a movie.

slumdog is hot favourite to sweep the oscar's. the guy playing the slumdog is a british born indian actor who got his break in an excellent british drama series called Skins.
he played a pakistani teenager in that. the series is a very realistic and funny portrayal of 21st century UK teen life.

highly recommended.

warning though: skins has a lot of sex and nudity. even the indian guy runs around nude is some scenes.