Slums Tourism In Mumbai
“Slumdog Millionaire” not a slum-dunk for Mumbai tourism
First of all, I congratulate all people involved in this movie and, particularly, to Mr. Rahman for winning Oscar awards and bringing laurels for himself, Bollywood, and to the country. However, I do not subscribe to the argument of this article titled “Slumdog Millionaire boosts Mumbai tourism."
Mumbai has its own historical importance, and it is the financial and industrial hub of India. A major chunk of tax revenues go to the government from this city. The city has several tourist places apart from beaches. The development of Mumbai in [the] last 5-10 years has been very rapid, outstanding, and the pace of development is still continuing. The argument that “Slumdog Millionaire” will bring tourism to Mumbai makes no sense to sagacious people like me. I have several concerns about this movie and the perceptions of the west about India.
I realized that this movie projects somewhat a negative image about India. Did this movie sell out Indian poverty to [the] west? Does it mean that make a movie on Indian poverty or Mumbai slums, it will fetch Oscar Awards? We, non-resident Indians (NRIs), excel abroad and keep our flag very high by demonstrating our skills, intelligence, hard work, Indian culture and values. Indian institutions and government bodies recognize and honor NRIs every year for their excellent work carried out in other countries. On the other hand, Bollywood and Hollywood producers and directors make such movies on India, projecting somewhat a negative goodwill about India and get awards like Oscar in the west, thereby indicating and communicating to others that produce a movie on slums and poverty of India, and you stand high chances to win awards like [an] Oscar in foreign lands.
My other question is: how many times [have] these people produced movies on good things about India? Maybe many times, but none of their movies earned [an] Oscar? Why? Indian middle class has progressed like anything in the world. Today, India has [an] over 315 million middle-class population, which is perhaps more than the population of the US. Why [don’t] people in other countries appreciate this and recognize the excellent progress of India and [the] Indian society?
Indian culture, values, and yoga have given a lot to western countries. Today, more than 50 percent of corporate executives in the US alone practice yoga to keep themselves fit and overcome their work stress. Perhaps there might have been movies on this; why were Oscar awards not considered?
Two years back, Reader's Digest, in its global survey, tried to project Mumbai as the rudest city in the world and New York the most behaved city, though I severely criticized Reader's Digest's unscientific methodology used in that survey. My perception has been that many times western societies prefer to read some negative images about India and its cities, for the best reasons known to them.
If a husband and wife have [a] quarrel at home, it does not mean that they should bring their quarrel to the streets. They have to project themselves in front of others as if they are [a] good couple, otherwise there is no family. Same way, yes, India has poverty (which cannot be eradicated overnight), but it does not mean that it should be projected in such [a] way to gain awards. Mumbai has some slum areas because people migrate from rural areas every year in search [of a] better life. At the same time, land is limited in Mumbai and resources available at the disposal of [the] government are always limited, therefore, housing is an acute problem. However, in [the] last five years, [the] Maharashtra government has done an excellent job in resettling the people from slum areas, and thousands of families have been provided small houses. This work continues there, and we hope that in [the] next decade, there will not be any slums in Mumbai.
Comments
Every country has slums and squatter areas; although scenes shown in slumdog M are facts of life, no one will certainly go to those areas if am a tourist. the message of the film is that you can reach your goals by working hard on it.
You are surely a biased arse-hole. And I can see you never read that Reader's Digest article.
Terribly biased writing. I recall that Reader's Digest survey, and I completely agreed with their findings that Mumbai was the least polite city (nowhere did they say "rudest" once -- you probably didn't read the article but read the reports on it. I'm an Indian and have lived in many places. I can't see any city that's so unpolite as Mumbai. And the Reader's Digest survey was done by local Indians in India and Americans in New York. They used the same criteria for politeness. I am a Digest reader. Some years ago they also had an honesty survey, where Mumbai scored above New York. Why don't you remember that.
I am from Guyana in South America, where my foreparents came from India i have never gone to that country but my comments are.
1. The move shows bravery and courage of the poor.
2, Every country has slums and poverty we cannot get away from that and
3, if you concentrate on the movie and story and not the images around one can enjoy this movie from a different point of view. It shows that poverty and being unable to read not getting to go to school when young does not make one uneducated and poor all ones life.
I am sorry if I sound critical of the attitudes of the better off Indians. You are very thin skinned about any perceived criticisms or slights on India and Indian matters such as the caste system. It is as though the Indian upper crust suffers from a collective inferiority complex.
I cannot remember his name but there is an Indian billionaire, for instance, who is building a muli-storey, multi billion dollar apartment smack in the middle of the slums of Mumbai. I think it is obscene. Why don't the well educated, better off, "NRI" speak out on this? It is better for you to attack such excesses rather than Slumdog.
Hi
I as an indian feel there is nothing objectionable about the movie - "slumdog millionaire". It has to be viewed in the perspective of a entertaining movie and not as a documentory.
Also the author of the above article has to remember that 80% of indians live below poverty in the urban and rural areas of India.
As a Westerner, I was quite curious about Slumdog's subject matter.
I think part of the reason it won is b/c it has a rather American point of view: the main character raises above difficult life experiences and actually uses these to his advantage to make his way in the world. In my mind, the characters were resilient, resourceful, and clever.
Isn't this the way India has been able to
grow and prosper as a nation?
Can I, as an American, put into context some
of the scenes depicted here, the orphanage, hustling at the Taj. No, nor must I. It's a movie meant to entertain, not document reality.
I found it to be good story-telling,
plain and simple.
I am not even Indian but a German, living in Hollywood, and working for the media myself. I have been to India many times, as a tourist and a documentary filmer. I share your opinion. The film is worth the Oscars in many ways. Compared to the other nominations I found it outstanding in its making. And from a producer's point of view, it is not a story about India, it is a hero's journey, the ideal story for a movie, set in India: a poor boy who can make it after all the struggle.
On the other hand, I had the annoying feeling that the film only approves all the worst prejudices people may have about India. The sweetness and forgiveness I experience in India is cut out of the film. In the film, life appears harsh and as an accumulation of the bad and ugly. I was wondering if this really is the perspective of the poor who I worked with myself and who always had a smile and a giggle whether for me or anybody else. I also see the bigger picture, as you mentioned, bursting cities with thousands of people moving in each month....I wonder how much better life is in the USA where poverty is just not that obvious, but for sure, it comes with much less sense of community and without smile.
I guess an Oscar making "Hollywood" movie is just what it is: Germans have to be Nazis, and Indians poor.
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