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Slumdog Millionairre

A poverty porn.?..or Great

Slumgod millionaire is getting mixed views and feedback.

Amitabh Bachchan in his blog despaired at the film showing the dark underbelly of India, a tradition that goes back to Satyajit Ray. The star even called it as 'poverty porn'.

Slumdog millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost.

Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show?

When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out. At the heart of its storytelling lies the question of how anyone comes to know the things they know about life and love.

It has some very important lessons though lots of people have major objection to the portrayal of the poverty, slums….Poverty is a reality in India and one cannot deny this. Only rich are embarrassed by the poverty for the poor it is the reality and the way of life.
Some slum dwellers took exception to being called 'dogs'.

The director Boyle says that the title of the film was not a reference to the canine species at all. It was not a derogatory reference to slum dwellers. It was simply a combination of 'slum' and 'underdog'. Hence came the word 'slumdog'!

If you for a moment sent aside the poverty and slums portrayal, it shows the small guy an underdog fighting against all the odds and making big. This is why the film is a big hit as it in US as this the core dream and value of USA. Americans can readily identify with the kid specially in the time of the global economic downturn.

This appeal of the human being an underdog and winning against all odds is universal. To a certain extent it mirrors India or Indians who generally are not fortunate to get the best of facilities or exposure, but regularly match and beat the best in the world and come out at the top.

If, we analyse most of our successes the start was always as underdogs during the time of struggle and it is only due to the tenacity and self belief, the success was achieved.

Infosys, Chandrayan Mission, Reliance, Dhoni, IITs, IIMs, Fighter pilots, Nano , Indian IT industry …all were underdogs with limited resources and constraints but they have excelled beating the best in their field.

There is nothing to be ashamed of in our past, on the contrary we should bear it proudly that in spite of it we excelled and that is the real story which every human being loves as it shows hope, improvement, betterment, belief and forward movement.

In fact we are proud to live in a country where a child living in slum or any other child regardless of it's background, social status can make it big.That is what made the US great and we may not still be there but are getting there.

Ironically, Boyle himself was an underdog. There were no takers for Slumdog Millionaire. He, out of despair, almost decided to distribute it in DVD format since no distributor wanted to 'risk' taking it up. By sheer luck Warner took it up with fears about the fate of the film. The rest is history. Boyle the underdog is now the toast of the cinema world.

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