Tunku Varadarajan in The Times, London:
“Maybe it’s a result of 200 years of colonialism, but Indians are world champions at caring—really caring!—about what foreigners (more accurately, Westerners) think or say about them. They will live blithely with impressively foetid slums in their midst, thinking nothing of the juxtaposition of Victorian-era poverty and world-class, 21st-century living standards. But the national outrage stirred when a Western film-maker uses “slumdog” in the title of his film is an incandescent sight to behold.
“That foreigner’s neologism (“slumdog” doesn’t exist in real parlance in India, although gali ka kutta, or alley-dog, comes close) is thought to heap more shame on the land than the slums themselves. And yet when that same film, with that same neo-imperialist title, is fêted by tuxedoed Americans at an awards ceremony watched across the globe, Indians burst with pride.”
Read the full article: Aren’t our slum people the world’s best?
Also read: Why do we crave certificates from white men?
churumuri 
Slums are India !
Mahatma Gandhi on Katherine Mayo’s “Mother India”:
“… If Miss. Mayo had confessed that she had come to India merely to open out and examine the drains of India, there would perhaps be little to complain about her compilation. But she declared her abominable and patently wrong conclusion with a certain amount of triumph: ‘the drains are India’”
Slumdog did to Mumbai what “mother Teresa” did to Calcutta!
“Charity need not be inconsistent with clarity. Calcutta is a modern Indian city where poverty and inequality coexist with measurably increasing prosperity, expanding opportunities, cautious optimism and, above all, pride in its unique character. Mother Teresa might have meant well, but she furthered her mission by robbing Calcutta of its richly nuanced identity while pretending to love it. “
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I guess it is high time we begin dealing with the “slums” and “drains” and so on, instead of being totally apathetic to it day in and day out, and shouting out loud in an injured tone only when Westerners make “money and fun” out of poverty in India.
No one has ever filed a case against ‘Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika’ for having people living in such inhuman conditions. But hey – people are soooo offended when an evil Westerner makes a movie about those very same slums!! Another example of our typical ‘middle class’ psyche here.
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Vinay, rightly said!
Should we be offended by the existence slums or some body just showing them? Misplaced priorities!
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Our Slum people are best in breeding. It is a common sight to see people living in slums having 4 to ten children.
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India is “bursting” with pride?? About Slumdog?? Where??
All the bursting is happening in the papers and the channels/online …no where else.
Folks misunderstand Hindu ire against “Slumdog”.
It’s not against the depiction of poverty in films, but against showcasing it as this country’s “produce”, to the West and the West recognizing only such “produce” from India.
To be angry about Slumdog is not equivalent to indifference wrt poverty and filth. That’s very silly deduction.
I know of several folks actively involved with “slum dwellers” who are very angry with Slumdog.
***
Sophist – The breeding happens because “life expectancy” is low. They don’t know how long their children will live.
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The class which craves for the attention and acceptance from the white race is the Indian Middle class. I do not think other Indians hardly care about the whites or their opinions. When Boyle & co offered to take the child artists of the movie SDM to the USA ( for Oscar show), the reaction from the parents was instead pl give us the ticket money, we and our kids will be better off without going to America. This will explain us how much our slum brethren care for opinion of white man.
By their training and upbringing most Indians are fatalistic, meaning we are resigned to the fate. Nothing surprises us and we rationalize everything as effects of Paapa and Punya of our earlier birth. This attitude appears to the untrained eye of westerners as ‘callousness’ towards others and self, which is partly true.
Indian slum dwellers may be in a way happier and content with their state of living than their brethren in other parts of the world, because most Indians rationalize adversities as effects of fate.
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There is no need to criticize Slumdog. It is just a film and visual media. If people want to make a realistic film. Let them make. India will remain vibrant and full of happenings.
Film is not bollywood. Film is about people and their apathy also.
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The word “dog” in the West, especially in the U. S., does not always mean the same thing as it does in India.
“Big Dog,” “Top Dog,” and sometimes a simple “Dog” can be terms of praise or admiration. “Slumdog” in this case of the movie means “undaunted by any difficulty or discouragement.”
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There is something wrong with us and this whole “Slumdog” business. Why do we as a people hinge our honor on movies, books, cartoons and sundry other things that by themselves, make not an iota of difference to our lives?
It is almost as if we are desperate, not for the western world’s approval, but to find the most basic, simplistic definition of ourselves. Sad.
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As a fan of the great Amitabh Bachchan I hated the portrayal of the Quizmaster, Anil Kapoor, in the movie. It was vulgar and had an open ulterior motive to show Indians and their icons as inhuman.
When Amitabh conducted KBC one thing which stood out was the way he was emphathetic towards the contestants and the kind of compassion and rapport this legendary star established with the common people. Many of these contestants were from lower middle class and poor backgrounds. Nowhere did he taunt them as Anil Kapoor does in the move. There were several instances where Amitabh warned through subtle hints when contestants were in the risk of losing money. But in Slumdog the Quizmaster plays the villain. The audience also are made villains when they laugh at the slum boy. I have seen Indian TV shows where the audience get emotional when they see truimph over suffering and poverty. But slumdog tries to dehumanize indians. Most western audience will stick to this opinion on Indians especially the Indian middle class.
There is another direct instance where the American Tourists give the taste of american charity to the slumdogs. This is a mischevious movie created with the sole purpose of devaluing Indians in general and the indian city dwelling middle class in particular. Only the western controlled english media is going ga ga over this slumdog.
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yet again g3s. good.
to be fair churumuri has kept out of ‘joll-ing’ over SM. It is only celebrating the achievements of arr in it.
arr has been around for so along. and so many people in india have continuously subscribed to his music. but that is not good enough.
later
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Well Slumdog just seems to me to be poverty porn. Many people living in slums in Bombay are middle class and cannot afford housing which is why they are living in slums– even my American friend told me the film did not portray the truth about slums–it is all not crime and drug infested as the ghettoes in the West–many decent people live there who just happen to be poor–this is why the slums of India are different from the slums of Rio, Brazil.
As for the PC stuff about Muslims–I do not care to watch this movie–I have seen the way people live in slums–I do not need anyone telling me aoubt how Muslims are oppressed–this movie is one-sided–Hindus and others also live in slums. But it did win some Oscars–maybe Amitabh was jealous…
There is more PC stuff going in in Indian movies than in Slumdog…Watch Jodha Akbar–I cannot see how any HIndu can watch the historical distortion presented in this movie and not be ill at ease….
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TS–
Go easy on your mysterious lucubrations. Who is “SM?”
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comment said : Should we be offended by the existence slums or some body just showing them? Misplaced priorities!
NO we should be offended that even after 60 yrs of the graet secular congress garibi-hatao sloganing rule we have such poverty in india.
And no one in the media reports the misrule if it si by congress-upa eg rti banned for central ministers,fraction of swiss bank deposits belonging to india is not only most of all countries but is more than the next 3 coutries combined.
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cliff:
“And no one in the media reports the misrule if it si by congress-upa eg rti banned for central ministers,”
If ‘no one in the media’ reports these things, how on earth did you find out all this information? By any chance are you a male (or female, as the case may be) keep for a congress-wallah?
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PTL,
‘guess TS is talking about ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Yeah I agree; sometimes its a bit of a mental circus to understandf the true purport of TS’s posts. well then thats TS for you lucidity has never been his forte :)
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I personally felt Slumdog was awesome. I always enjoy when the underdog wins in a movie. Probably helps the bruised middle class ego.
The only thing which raised an eyebrow was the accent of the older Jamaal Malik. But movies are fictional, so i just enjoyed the whole package.
Wish the movie is taken in the right spirit by the right wingers, and ensure that equal opportunity is given to the slum-dwellers to enter the mainstream.
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