Slumdog Oscar success divides India
India reacted with mixed feelings as Slumdog Millionaire, an enthralling rags-to-riches tale set in the slums of Mumbai, scooped up eight Academy Awards in Los Angeles, including Best *Picture.
Indias film industry was bitterly at odds in the run-up to last nights awards over whether to acknowledge Slumdog Millionaire as an Indian film as excitement grew over its 10 Oscar nominations. The $15m (12m, £10m) budget film was directed by Danny Boyle, a British film-maker, and featured a cast of largely unknown actors.
Where relatives of the child actors celebrated the Oscar win, and jubilation erupted in their home neighbourhoods, its critics have preferred to view the film as foreign, although its content, actors and musical score are Indian.
As the acclaim has grown, controversy about how the film portrays India has deepened. The protagonist, Jamal Malik, grows up in a slum and survives insuperable odds to track down his childhood sweetheart. His mother is killed in a sectarian riot forcing him and his brother to become beggars.
The brother joins a gang, while Jamal finds a job as a lowly chaiwallah (teamaker) in a call centre. By some extraordinary chance, he becomes a contestant on the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? game show.
But even to win the game show, he has to overcome a corrupt system. While on the show, he is a popular hero. Backstage, Jamal is tortured by the police as the shows managers try to extract a confession that he has cheated.
The backdrop to a redemptive love story is that of a poor, brutal and blighted society. That world, though real to hundreds of millions of Indians, is sharply at odds with how modern India sees itself. Many Indian viewers are highly uncomfortable with the depiction of the slumland, the deliberate maiming of children and police torture.
There are no mass celebrations in the slum, says Ganesh, who works for a travel agency in Dharavi, where much of the movie is set. Most people in Dharavi havent even seen the movie.
The film has been sharply criticised as poverty ****. Well-respected local filmmakers have described the film as titillating western audiences with its portrayal of slum life.
Priyadarshan Nair, an India film-maker, complained strongly that the film makes a mockery of India. Its nothing but a mediocre Bollywood film, which has used references from several Hindi films very smartly, he wrote in the newspaper India Today at the weekend.
India is not Somalia. We are one of the foremost nuclear powers in the world, our satellites are roaming the universe. Our police commissioners offices dont look like shacks and there are no blind children begging in the streets of *Mumbai.
Even some who like the movie are unhappy with its title. Dog is really offensive for us Indians, says Krishna Pujari, a former street child who now organises ethical tours of the slum.
Much of the resentment stems from the fact that Indias own booming Bollywood film industry and the big names of Indian cinema have not previously been recognised at the Academy Awards. Slumdog Millionaire and its cast, including child actors drawn from the slums, have succeeded where the glitz and the greats have not.
India has, however, found a way to celebrate the film. Critics and cinema-goers alike have praised A.R. Rahman, a well-known Indian musician, for his score, which captured an Oscar.
But some view Slumdog Millionaires success in Los Angeles as a geopolitical moment for India, and proof of a warming relationship with the US. Morris Reid, a lobbyist for the entertainment industry who was an adviser to former US president Bill Clinton, says the films success would awake a generation to Indias possibilities.
Because of Slumdog Millionaire, millions of people in Kansas will be saying: Ive seen that movie and Im interested in India, says Mr Reid.
A lotus from the swamps is how a proud father of a child actor in the film describes his sons achievement. The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, reiterated that sentiment saying: The winners have done India proud.
FT.com / India / Politics & Society - ?Slumdog? Oscar success divides India
? The Chinese already have three Oscars for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
