Slumdog Millionaire.The movie which won 8 oscars.It bombed in india.Surprising?
Not really.I'm not among those who's going to question the movie.Rather,i have a few questions about the indian attitude towards the movie.
The movie didn't work with the masses.The language barrier could have been one reason.But even though there was a dubbing it still didn't work.The masses know exactly what danny boyle was trying to portray.They didn't want to see it.Simply because they'r all probably going through similar lives.The people want to see large palaces,people flying private airplanes and actresses dancing in semi-nude clothes in movies like K3G.So that,atleast temporarily, they can get out of their misery.Their reason,i would say,is justified.
What i fail to understand is the attitude of the middle class and the elite.There was widespread criticism from people like Arindham Chaudhury,Priyadarshan and many more.They claimed that the westerners get a sort of sadistic pleasure out of watching poor India.And they claimed that India is not like that anymore after the economic progress we are making in this century.I can't comment on the first part.But the latter is definitely not true.The real India is far from making progress.Everyone knows where India stands on the scale of Human Development Index.Our very own Arvind Adiga has shown us the stark reality of India in his book "The White Tiger'.The difference was that he was hailed (after all he won the booker's prize!).And he was labelled among those making India proud .So then why are we getting so hypocritical when an outsider(Danny Boyle) tells the "Indian story".Why does it pinch us so much.The reason is because deep down we all know that its the truth.The real India is not Marine Drive or Gurgaon.It's Dharavi.The real India is DEV KULI (Bihar),a village which belongs to a community of outcastes who,uptil 1 year ago,used to dine on rats!
Delhi is a great example.On one side you see a mall in every nook and corner,the development of the metro and roads which would look as good as any in the world.But if you watch Delhi from the trains when they approach Hazrat Nizhamuddin you know exactly what reality is.Old Delhi looks like a totally different planet.Behaving like poverty does not exist will not change the facts.700 million people in India still live on half a dollar per day.
And we see advertisements of "India Shining".The upper class and the politicians are less offended about the abject poverty that exists in India than being offended about the fact that an outsider has made a sinciere attempt(maybe not the best ever but atleast sinciere!) to tell the true story.How long are we going to turn the eye?
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yep.. true India is not the financially well-to-do people... but others ..
ReplyDeleteBut 700 Million living below 50 cents a day ... that's a bit far fetched or perhaps ??
If you had said 300 Million .. I could have agreed ( AS we read in the Wikipedia & other articles that day )
hey thanks 4 d comment.....one of my sources is also the wikipedia.....in the article poverty in india from wikipedia...2nd paragraph...last line.....it says 80% of india live on less than half a dollar a day...so that would be about 820 million....thats far more than i've said.....this was also there in the times of india survey of 2005.....my point is that the financial divide in our country is far more than what we think....
ReplyDeleteFrom wikipedia
ReplyDelete"Despite significant economic progress, 1/4 of the nation's population earns less than the government-specified poverty threshold of 12 rupees per day (approximately USD $0.25). Official figures estimate that 27.5%[14] of Indians lived below the national poverty line in 2004-2005.[15] A 2007 report by the state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) found that 77% of Indians, or 836 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees (approximately USD $0.41) per day[16] with most working in "informal labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty."[17]
2004-2005 and 2009 is not the same period baba !
ReplyDeletefoget the times of india survey baba.....the wikipedia article is latest na!....or at max 2 years old......in 2 years poverty decreased from 850 million to 300 million o what????.....magic ho raha hai kya?!
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