Posts Tagged ‘Slumdog’
Slumdog – Context setting
Speaking to a friend today I said a couple things about Slumdog that Deepan asked I share on my blog – so here goes. The conversation started with my friend wondering how much of the depiction of the slums were reality and how much s part of what film making is about (artistic liberties et al) … and I replied — It’s pretty much as is.
And then I went on…
Mumbai has three parallel universes, I said, that also incredibly fuse into one another. On on extreme are the slums – this terrifyingly large population of people who live in slums such as Dharavi – - On the other extreme is the extremely rich class (one of the characters of the protagonist lives in the 5th richest street in the world that HAPPENS to be in Mumbai!) and in the middle is another growing middle class that feeds on shows like ‘Who’s wants to be a millionaire’. What the film does beautifully, I said, is to juxtapose on one hand the host of the show (Big B) – an embodiment of the ‘Rich & famous’ (that was Famous & Bankrupt catapulted by this very show into Famous and Famously Rich again), on the other hand a ‘slumdog’ – the poor and literally translated ‘galli ka kuta’ (Dig deeper and it made me ponder about the crass interpretation of karma & rebirth that Indians adopt as ‘ways of life’) — and the audience, I continued, is the middle class sensibility that considers this entertainment!!
Some context is necessary for non-Indian audiences – - The host of the show is not just any odd Ryan Seacrest but a superstar.. kinda like asking Tom Cruise perhaps or a Denzel Washington to host the show. The show’s success was as much because of the host than it was about the contestant. The original host was of course Big B himself — and as in my earlier post – no wonder he’s so put out.. People came to watch the show because they adored Big B more than they did any competition for a crore (10 million).
This is further proof why this is an Indian film about India – - another proof in the pudding that is collaboration!
End of transmission – got to sleep!
