“So now everyone, including the Congress Party, is taking credit for the Oscars that Slumdog Millionaire won! The party claims that instead of “India Shining” it has presided over India ‘Achieving’. Achieving what?
“In the case of Slumdog, India’s greatest contribution, certainly our political parties greatest contribution is providing an authentic, magnificent backdrop of epic poverty, brutality and violence for an Oscar-winning film to be shot in. So now that too has become an achievement?
“Something to be celebrated? Something for us all to feel good about? Honestly, it’s beyond farce.
“And here’s the rub: Slumdog Millionaire allows real-life villains to take credit for its cinematic achievements because it lets them off the hook. It points no fingers, it holds nobody responsible. Everyone can feel good. And that’s what I feel bad about.”
Read the full article here: Caught on film: India ‘not shining’
churumuri 
Haven’t we been through this before? And of all people, to hear from A.Roy on a first working day. Too much to take!
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Arundhati Roy is the biggest real life ZERO. She has no moral right to write anything.
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Is this all Arundhati Roy wrote ? Is there a full article, pls..
What she has told in four paras is simply brilliant !
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All these lefties keep writing in Dawn or “The News” of pakistan as no Indian newspaper or reader takes them seriously! It satisfies the pakistani reader to know how far behind India is, so they are all treated like royalty by Paki media!!
They always undermine the achievements of this nation, have only things to criticize, and have the notion of Universal brotherhood, which they too very well know aren’t real!!
And for all their criticism, they have no qualms about being honored by the same system they criticize! What is the contribution of Indian “backdrop” in Arundati’s book “God of small things”, which won the Booker prize??
Afterall where would Arundati Roy would’ve been if not for that Booker prize??
She is a Hypocrite of a very high degree!
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For a change Arundhati Roy is talking sense
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Its common to take credit of success as the popular saying “sucess has thousand fathers ,but defeat is an orphan”.We should feel ashamed of ourselves of how our country is portrayed in western world,For them India is just slums,poverty,etc.Why did’t MadhurBhandarkar’s film “Traffic signal” didnt get much prosperity?Because he is an Indian this film gained identification just becuase it is directed by an english man
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Andy,
You can read the full article here: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/entertainment/caught-on-film-india-not-shining-ss
I have no doubt she is brilliant. My only crib about her is that she is such a pseudo!
Read more about her over here: http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/roy_arundhati.html
She is the beneficiary of the system she criticizes so much. She led an vagabond lifestyle for long, and then finally when she wrote her only hot selling book, it was nothing but Exploitation of the same kind as she accuses “Slumdog”!!!
IMO – she is a hypocrite, who has a weird view on how life should, as long as she isn’t made to suffer it.
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Usually leftists love to hang on to anything which projects India as poor, squalid, unhygenic, exploitative. Arundathi Roy being the publicity hungry commie slime that she is, does a gymnastic act of holding conggies responsible for the slums of india. Of course her solution for all these problems are worse than the problems itself. She wants complete disintegration of the nation state of india and a hindu cultural genocide. So finally we can acheive what the commies have always aspired – equal distribution of poverty.
Like someone said here no one takes her seriousl in India. She has a fan following in Pakistan amongst the Jihadis. Her tacit support to the kashmir separatists, jihadis and opposition to USA has made her dear to some of the wannabe osama and mullah omars in pakistan. She gives them an illusion that she voices the aspiration of a major population of India. That is comforting for many of these mullah news media. But finally she gets her medium to express herslef and be in the limelight. Thats what these professional protestors and phony intellectuals want.
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@ Harkol
Thank you..read the full story.
Whatever may have been the line of Arundhati Roy on other topics..she is bang on target on this one.
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For once, just once, Arundathi Roy has made a statement which makes sense. I agree with her points, Slumdog Millionaire is not an Indian movie. I don’t know why we as Indians should be celebrating its victory at the Oscars. Probably Indians are the only people who celebrate something which insults their own country.
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Andy,
I have no problem with what she is saying on how ridiculous it is for Congress or BJP to claim any credit for Slumdog.
My problem is with the way she criticizes the product itself. Why single out Slumdog? Almost any book or film based on India will try to magnify the inequalities and injustices within India. And that includes her book “god of small things” too!!
So, if she did it, then it is OK, because she is doing it with all good intentions, where as these Brits are doing it to make money??? It is sheer providence that got this movie an oscar, just as Ms. Roy winning the Booker.
I am not saying they were not deserving, but just that a lot of deserving people don’t get what they deserve, these guys did. But, the product was good enough for them to stand a remote chance in the first place!
But, how hypocritical can someone like Ms. Roy be??
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How is slumdog India’s great achievement? It was made by a British director and not all foreigners liked it–many of my American friends who have worked in India says it does not portray Indian well–in short it is poverty porn. I doubt I want to or care to watch this movie–
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I agree with the bigger point that she is trying to highlight. Unfortunately, it’s coming from a wrong person who has no credibility whatsoever! ;-)
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I have also never met a single person who liked her book in the West even, let alone in India. Overrated is what I say–sad that our culture only chruns out “intellectuals” like her…When will our part of the world ever produce literature and greatness again? Among the few Indians worth reading in modern times is V.S. Naipaul, but even his work is characterized by a lack of ideas — as he himself admits, it is largely due to his growing up in the limiting circumstances of Trinidad and a writer can only write of what he has experienced, but his writing is superb. When will India will have an epic writer again on the scale of Tagore? Perhaps India does not produce great literature as India no longer has a real culture and only copies others like a monkey–I recall Waugh wrote somewhere of the impossibility of writing satire in an age without culture.
I feel that while other countries progress–even countries that have not produced much original thinking and peoples who do not have a single original neuron in their brains are going ahead materially, but India is retrogressing–will India ever produce a culture again and greatness again or is it destined to only look at its past for a feeling of self-worth?
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RSS, Ram sene types,
Shoot the messenger. And keep shooting yourselves in the foot :)
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Vinay as some one said,as TM said these are the arts majors who could not do anything else except earn a living this way or wok in english media or at JNU.and you say no one will take to arts if it is made fun of.
Yeah no one would take arts but most dont have a choice because they cant compete in any other major which needs overall brain powers.Of course there are exceptions but your arguments here show that you are like most with simple minds and no analyis.Hindus bad,muslims good.Congress bad,bjp good.No wonder may commenters put you in your place.
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@Bomma,
Mentally retarded messengers don’t deserve any attention. A.Roy is one such completely mad woman.
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jose:
“your arguments here show that you are like most with simple minds and no analyis”
On the contrary, you’re the one who is so simple minded that you can come up with nothing better than an accusation of “Hindus bad muslims good” despite my reams and reams of prior comments which show very clearly, where I stand w.r.t. religion in general, and w.r.t BJP-congress. For all your sepf-proclaimed ‘intelligence’ and self-glorification, you have not been able to identify that I consider the BJP and Congress equally depraved in their own ways. So much for your goddamn ‘analytical skills’ – you are proving beyond doubt that you do not deserve to be in your ‘non arts major’ – a sure case of an expert at ‘mugging up’ stuff who has slipped in with the rest of the rats.
“No wonder may commenters put you in your place.”
Thats a matter of perception ***hole. Who puts whom in ‘their place’ depends entirely on one’s point of view.
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By the way, I consider Arundhati Roy to be one of the greatest hypocrites in existence, but I agree with her on this particular point which she makes here – it is ridiculous for political parties to take ‘credit’ for Slumdog.
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Do you need to like a person to acknowledge he/she has a valid point ? Much of the ire here seems to stem from the fact that the commenters dislike Roy (I’m no fan either). But as adults we ought to be able to separate our personal dislikes from acknowledging a valid point. She does have a valid point for a change…
Making a fast buck off the zeitgeist is hardly alien to the world(look at Pepsi, Audi,Ikea making a fast buck jumping on the ‘change’ obamamania..) and India is no exception ; if any, given the poverty and the daily struggles, there’s more of it. Our netas — most of who suffer from the abject poverty of the intellect, are very prone to it as well. Our desi Bollywood, not so poor, suffers from it too. Pray why Bachchan and family end up — Amar Singh in tow –, on Aishwarya’s coat tails on every red-carpet ? L I M E L I G H T …
About India being depicted bad in Slumdog. Are we kidding ourselves ? Yes there are graphic scenes ; but from when did holding a mirror to reality — however stark, become a crime ? We have become good at looking the other way — despite these slums being in our backyards ; we find ourselves wanting the world to associate India with light eyed Aishwarya and her khandaan (Amar Singh in tow !) at Cannes. But that’s far from reality.
For once, a slum(under)dog stole the limelight from under the nose of the pink panther and let’s be happy about it. For all the hype of how we would not have had the hype, but for the phoren director, this movie almost did not make it to the theaters. So it’s been no fairy tale. Life goes on, it’s just a movie…
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Coffee Addict,
So who in your opinion is not mentally retarded? Advani, Vajpayee, Modi or govindacharya?
Just retarded is the same as senile and retarded.
In any case, like I said before, personal attacks without looking at the issue at hand is in form with RSS, Ram sene types, taliban etc. types.
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@Bomma,
All above mentioned people are 50% mentally retarded. I agree. But, A. Roy 100%. No chance of any recovery.
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bomma – Not Modi. He’s probably the only one sane, left.
And fyi…personal attacks nee character assassination, is as old as the hills. Communists of old’ made it a fine art form under Lenin and still do in India. Secular-Liberals are their fine disciples.
Btw, can you cite examples of “personal attacks” as tactic by the Rama Sene and even the Taliban :) I’d be much interested in knowing.
I know I’ve left out the RSS. They have used “personal attacks” more in defense than offence.
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Palahalli,
Who said anything about personal attacks. Kumblukai kalla andhre…
Anyway was talking to coffee addict who had some interesting things to say about it.
Did not apply to you. I can understand someone who keeps ranting and hating shooting messengers out of spite. Or beating women because they dared to be do what men do.
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bomma – The question remains.
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Palahalli,
No question remains.
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bomma – It remains.
“Btw, can you cite examples of “personal attacks” as tactic by the Rama Sene and even the Taliban :) I’d be much interested in knowing.”
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Palahalli,
The “question” is in your “blinkered” “mind”.
Are you “blind”? That should answer your “question”.
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Are you “blind”? No.
Now answer the question.
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Palahalli,shame on you..calling a mass murderer “the only sane one left”…and what’s with the constant ranting against ‘Secular-Liberals’ and spewing venom? You sound straight out of an RSS shakha….and here I was under the impression that you right-wing sorts were confined to the BJP youth cadre and the likes ….
As for the topic,I agree with Ms. Roy on this one…the message at the end is the most disagreeable at all-that the poor can become rich with a little luck and even if they don’t they can always sing and dance and(most atrocious of all) ‘love’ their way out of misery,crippling poverty being such a trivial,day-to-day fact for them-a fact they better get used to…besides,on the strict basis of artistic merit too,it’s a mediocre film-does in no way belong to the pantheon of great films(generally) to have won oscars…
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Well, well, well, I find myself in agreement with Arundhati Roy. Surely there must be something wrong!
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