Poverty porn to sell India to the West

The Pioneer | January 25, 2009 | Coffee Break

Slumdog is about defaming Hindus
Kanchan Gupta

In keeping with American politics of the times, Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated for as many as 10 Oscars and our deracinated media, which constantly looks for inspirational ‘good news’ stories that invariably revolve around Western appreciation of ‘truthful’ portrayal of the Indian ‘reality’, has gone into a tizzy. Saturday’s edition of a newspaper published from New Delhi had a blurb on the front page that read, “The Slumdog story: How ‘Danny uncle’ and his ‘moral compass’ created the biggest ‘Indian’ blockbuster — and why you should watch it.” Predictably, the chattering classes, who had been blissfully ignorant of Vikas Swarup’s Q and A (as they had been of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger till its perverse denigration of India and all things Indian wowed the judges of last year’s Man Booker prize) are now making a beeline for the nearest bookshop for a copy of the novel, whose title has been suitably changed to Slumdog Millionaire so that the book and the film are eponymous and both publisher and producer can encash the extraordinary hype that has been generated. Late last year, there was similar hoopla over AR Rahman getting the Golden Globe award for the music he has scored for Slumdog Millionaire. An approving pat on the back by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, it would seem, is the most important marker in an artiste’s career. Those Indian musicians who haven’t got the Golden Globe are not worthy of honour at home just as Sahitya Akademi award winners are not worthy of finding space on our bookshelves, leave alone feature on news pages or news bulletins.

The larger point is not really about going gaga over an American award or a British prize, but how they are seen as India being admitted into the charmed circle whose membership is strictly controlled and is by invitation only. That invitation invariably follows a certain pattern; it’s not merely the keepers of the gate chanting, “Eeny meeny miny mo, catch a tiger by his toe, if he hollers let him go…” Apart from the fact that the ‘tigers’ in this case are not hollering but salivating at the prospect of seeing themselves clutching a handful of trophies on Oscar night, the nomination process is far more rigorous than we would think, with filters to keep out those films and books that do not serve the judges’ purpose or pander to their fanciful notions — in this case, of India. Aravind Adiga crafted his novel in a manner that it could not but impress the Man Booker judges who see India as a seething mass of unwashed hordes which worship pagan gods, are trapped in caste-based prejudices, indulge in abominable practices like untouchability, and are not worthy of being considered as an emerging power, never mind economic growth and knowledge excellence. Similarly, Danny Boyle has made a film that portrays every possible bias against India and structured it within the matrix of Western lib-left perceptions of the Indian ‘reality’ which have little or nothing in common with the real India in which we live.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Boyle’s film is about a slum where extreme social exclusion, political suppression and economic deprivation define the lives of its inhabitants. He has made every effort to shock and awe the film’s audience by taking recourse to graphic and gory portrayal of bloodthirsty Hindu mobs on the rampage — the idiom that defines India as it is imagined by the lib-left Western mind — laying to waste Muslim lives (a Hindu is shown slitting a Muslim woman’s throat in an almost frame-by-frame remake of the videotape that was released by the killers of Daniel Pearl) and property. There’s more that makes you want to throw up the last meal you had: Hindu policemen torturing Muslims by giving them ‘electric shock therapy’, street children being physically disfigured and then forced to beg, and such other scenes of a medieval society where rule of law does not exist and every Hindu is a rapacious monster eager to make a feast of helpless Muslims.

Nor is it surprising that Boyle should have cunningly changed the name of the film’s — as also the book’s — protagonist from Vikas Swarup’s Ram Mohammad Thomas (a sort of tribute to the Amar Akbar Antony brand of ‘secularism’ which was fashionable in the 1970s) to Jamal Malik. The name implies a Kashmiri connection, and we can’t put it beyond Boyle suggesting a link between Jamal’s travails — it is his mother whose throat is shown as being slit by a Hindu — and the imagined victimhood of Kashmir’s Muslims who, the lib-left intelligentsia in the West insists, are ‘persecuted by Hindu India’. Asked about the protagonist’s name being changed, Swarup is believed to have said that it was done to “make it sound more politically correct”. There is a second hidden message: The Hindu quizmaster on the ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ show has doubts about Jamal, who gets all the questions right, not because he is a ‘slumdog’ but because he is a Muslim; so he sets India’s Hindu police on the hapless boy. Swarup did not quite put it that way in his book, but the film does so, and understandably the critics in Hollywood who sport Obama buttons are impressed.

The last time depravity was portrayed as the Indian ‘reality’ was when Roland Joffé did a cinematic version of Dominique Lapierre’s City of Joy. In that film, the Missionaries of Charity were shown as the saviours of an India trapped in filth, squalor, poverty and Hindu superstition. Some two decades later, Boyle has rediscovered Joffé’s India and made appropriate changes to fit his film into the Hindu-bad-Muslim-good mould so that it has a resonance in today’s America where it is now fashionable to look at the world through the eyes of Barack Hussein Obama.

In her review of the film, “Shocked by Slumdog’s poverty porn”, Alice Miles writes in The Times: “Like the bestselling novel by the Americanised Afghan Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Slumdog Millionaire is not a million miles away from a form of pornographic voyeurism. Slumdog Millionaire is poverty porn.” Commenting on the BBFC's decision to “place this work in the comedy genre”, she says, “Comedy? So maybe that’s it: I just didn't get the joke.” It’s doubtful whether most Indians, Hindus and Muslims, would get it either if they were to watch Slumdog Millionaire.

TALK BACK

are you kidding me? By sr on 3/2/2009 10:17:09 AM reading this i thought 'what a pile of rubbish' and then i go look at the comments and everyone is agreeing with this trash. u people need to grow the hell up and accept this movie for what it is - fiction. there is no scene where a muslim gets their throat cut by a hindu. Speaking as a hindu, i was not offended my this movie in the least.

Joseph: Please mind your words By shanth on 2/28/2009 10:25:33 PM Please keep your counsel on Hindu religion to yourself. Please do not instigate religious tyranny of Christianity on India. You guys have for the last 2 thousand years never tolerated any other form of worship. If you are a convert from Hinduism you better not abuse your ancestors. I think you should first learn what Hinduism is and then pass comments on Hinduism. sanatan dharma is about absolute and relative truth. If you have any questions reply to this.

anti Hindu propaganda By Rajdeep on 2/26/2009 3:37:50 AM @joseph - Christianity is a not even a religion, its a desert ideology masquerading as a religion. Over the years, millions have been tortured, killed, burnt at the stake and maimed for not converting. As for burning people alive, its what your co-religionists do to Hindu tribals in North East India. This movie is just another propaganda tool by this sick cult to denigrate Hinduism.

slumdog religion deserved the publicity By joseph on 2/23/2009 7:45:39 PM At least the world can see what this cartoon religion is all about. Enough of Muslim bashing, the suckers have burnt Christians alive in Orrissa. Hope another salman rushdie comes along and writes the next book exposing Hinduism for all its filthy sewage it teaches people.

scumbag billionaires! By TAP on 2/23/2009 2:02:50 PM Mr Kanchan Gupta has a point . These moviemakers are no angels, they are in it for the moolah! If they portray anyone else as the antagonists other than the hindus the movie project would be destined to be doomed. So they have naturally played the safe game by not committing harakiri, obviously they have to safeguard their investments and look after the welfare of Mumbai's slum-dwellers (sic!). India is a lucrative film market no doubt and everyone wants a piece of the cake!

What about Obama? By Brian on 2/5/2009 6:00:55 PM Uh, correct me if I m wrong, but wasn't this movie (and the "Q and A" book for that matter) made BEFORE Obama even became president? How then could Boyle change parts "so that it has a resonance in today's America where it is now fashionable to look at the world through the eyes of Barrack Hussein Obama"? Lets not forget that just a few months ago some of Obama's critics/ opponents where trying to link him to terrorism BECAUSE of his Muslim name!

Grow up! By Rose on 2/1/2009 12:48:27 AM Oh god....are you all, and especially the journalist so cynical in life or is this a special case!? Is it so difficult to accept the truth? Are the slums not there? Or the caste differences not there? Did the riots not happen, or will they not happen again? Which part of the extreme social exclusion, political suppression and economic deprivation is not true? Since you are a journalist you are obviously well traveled into the remotest parts of the country and a lot more aware of the truth .

Get real about the real India! Most of what SM depicts is more typical than the cloistered world of the top 5% By KS on 1/30/2009 5:21:21 PM So obviously the real India is one where 1.2 billion people live prosperous lives in air conditioned houses, drive the latest cars, have college degrees, work in world beating companies, have no prejudices (whether caste or religious or race or whatever). . . Hindu Muslim riots, beggars, poverty, slums, child labour, mob violence, gangsters, police using the third degree, corruption, open sewers- clearly these are all figments of the imagination, myths perpetuated by envious westerners .

Kanchan's "slumanalysis" By PK on 1/30/2009 2:13:38 PM Hats off to Kanchan to make this analysis. I would go further in the subliminal messages smartly radiated by diabolical directors of late. Watching the SDC movie, I was horrified scene after scene. To make the message crystal clear, they have not spared the women either. While Jamal and Salim are evidently Muslims, Latika, a Hindu name is deliberately inserted to have vicarious thrill of Muslim underdog brothers raping and screwing Hindu girl.

Do not forget films makers of Bollywood. By Govind on 1/30/2009 11:23:23 AM Here is the reality. Most of the Bollywood operatives are dancers of the Dowd's club. Indian Film sensor Board are made of muslim converts. Most of the muslim and p-sec. writers portrayed hindu sants, upper casts, swamis as evil men in their scripts. Rest indian foreign producers wants awards by bashing hindus. None of them have dare to produce films of perverted priests, christian maoists, murderer mullahs or plight of kashmiri Pandits or genocides of Hindus by the muslims thugs in recent blast.

Conspiracy By Jitendra Desai on 1/30/2009 10:51:46 AM Former colonialists are unable to digest the rise of India.Hence we have celebrations for Nirad babu, Naipaul, Arvind, Arundhati or whoever comes forward to denigrate the longest survivers of History- Hindus.Hindus are around since 10,000 years and would be around when these slums, and other dogs are long forgotten.

When will we stop looking through the lens of religion? By Aakarsh on 1/29/2009 11:48:53 PM probably if Danny Boyle knew that so many people would analyze the movie in such an indepth manner and pick out the so-called 'issues' like potraying Hindus wrong and showing plight of Muslims, he would have scrapped the idea of this film. If only he showed the script to this author and some people out here, he would changed all the names. A Jamal Malik could have easily become a Jagannath Rao. infact, every Hindu character and mulsim character (names afterall) are very much swappable.

why don't we ever accept the reality? By Sanchita Chatterjee on 1/28/2009 2:24:54 PM Haven't seen the movie but from what I heard: granted that it is a poverty porn but the rest of the arguments are useless. Especially denial of the fact that there are strong caste bias and conflicts, a large number of people living in slums and thus have all sorts of economic and social difficulties, which we English speaking Middle and upper class can't even imagine. These awards (oscars, man booker) matter because they consider a large variety of works from all over the world.

SLUMDOG By CA Ravindra Sharma on 1/27/2009 2:54:40 PM Dear Kanchan, There are not much taker of your version about the movie because we Hindus are cowards simply critcising the act of few brave Hindhus who dare to bring the truth to notice. It is a naked truth that Western countries has always portrayed India as a open toilet and garbage, they are never interested in the other side of the shining India. Even our polititians are till date following the Britishers policy of "Divide & Rule" and we the so called Intelectual fellow countrymen are dancing to their tune.

Do not agree? By J. Kumaresan on 1/27/2009 1:41:22 PM If you do not agree with film can you tell that there is a single village/city where caste/religion bias is not there. The Hindu ideology is fake, not acceptable, Sanathan word itself is wrong in contrast to everything is subject to change. Many want sanathan (no change in caste humiliation). This country has freedeom to whom? Elites to exploit others.

Spot on, Sir! By Jiggs on 1/27/2009 12:58:55 PM Director Boyle's background must be checked and I am sure some Christian Missionary link will come up. Guys ...this is begining of the Pope's words " 21st century is the turn of Asia".we will have more such slum movies, denigerating Sanatan Dharma in all possible ways. I have not and will not see this white trash movie.....

Well said By Gautam Desai on 1/27/2009 7:45:29 AM Kanchan Gupta said it well. It was shameful to see Anil Kapoor jumping up and down at award shows.

Lagan was denied entry into oscar as it represented bad british here is is otherway By hk on 1/27/2009 7:00:45 AM Why we are obsessed with White color? with oscar. As people pointed out, Rehman was giving bad music till today and now he is giving good? Also Lagan was showning poor Hindus/Muslims united against whites so that did not go to oscar. Here is one over which we can fight, it shows again their devide and rule politics.

Wild Wild East India Movie projecting "Hindu Savage" myth By Mayank Patel on 1/27/2009 6:20:29 AM Kanchan did a fine job highlighting the prejudice and bias in a typical "Wild Wild East India" movie and media reports which are portraying and popularising "Hindu Savage" myth. This delibrate distortion must be countered before it is too late.

Aspersions on Hindus By Dr. Ajay on 1/27/2009 3:20:22 AM The underworld is quite 'secular' in maiming, killing or whatever in the interest of their 'business'. So, the single-minded casting of a Muslim family as victims, lamely balanced by Latika, was jarring for its political undertones. I wondered if it was a business decision to help the movie sales in the Muslim community by feeding on their 'underdog' feelings. The Hindu community could be expected to take it on the chin. The film was interesting for its twisted plot but quite hyperbole.

Slumdog Millionaire! By Shantan on 1/27/2009 3:09:03 AM Kanchan Da, I disagree with your comments on Slumdog Millionaire! Let us just take the movie for what it is! It is fiction and let it remain that. We don't need to look at everything with a Hindu or Muslim mirror. I watched the movie in the US and liked most of it. Following are the points which you were against: 1. Hindus attacked muslims and slit throats. Didn't that happen in Mumbai in 1993? Yes, it doesn't show the other side because that was not the point of the movie.

Denial Mode By Sharad Bhasin on 1/26/2009 2:30:52 PM Although I have a lot of respect for Kanchan as a learned columnist and read his columns with great interest but I totally fail to agree with his take on Slumdog Millionaire, the movie. It is quite obvious that we Indians do have an uncanny ability to be in Denial Mode for anything that is ugly and painful which this movie portrays with a lot of truth and justice. Just as we celebrate our zillionaires, page 3 celebritiies and cricket stars , we need to acknowledge the dark side

Very well Said By CMK on 1/25/2009 11:41:39 PM When I watched the movie, I was very disturbed by the way Hindus were shown in the film. This psedudo secular media would be the first to glorify it.

Slimdog -a poor slum porn By ved on 1/25/2009 10:42:16 PM Slumdog is as usual an Indian Poverty porn aimed at titillating western jaundiced view of Hindu India.As usual psuedos in India are hailing it as masterpiece.I have a cd of Rahman's music and i find nothig special in it.Rahman has done nuch better.A very poor thingee this movie.Dont waste your dime over it-my advice.

Slum Dog By Dr Ashok Kureel on 1/25/2009 10:06:24 PM Telling the dalits donot wash your dirty clothes in public but for dalits donot have place to live in hindu India.Slumdog millionare is a wonderful movie which is showing the world about dalits and muslims.I got the call from my friend from London that his Pakistani friend is taking UK nati onal to show them film about hindus and hindu India.time has come world media should come to India and show the world about the real condtion of dalits .

Lets not go overboard with it By Manish Gupta on 1/25/2009 10:00:54 PM Author views on this film is strictly from a Hindu point of view. Which very well may be valid. However, personally after watching the film I was not that offended at the same time I was very disturbed by some portrayal on three instances. First, I was not able to digest how police could gruesomly torture a contestant of such a popular and ongoing quiz show who is scheduled to re-appear the next day (all logic seems to go for toss here).

Slumdog is about defaming Hindus By Krishen Kak on 1/25/2009 8:33:25 PM Superb analysis. Typical of this columnist's incisive telling-it-as-is style.

India, world’s favourite playground By P Paul on 1/25/2009 7:32:52 PM The argument presented by Kanchan Gupta seems very plausible but to me Slumdog Millionaire is nothing more than the poverty tourism that has lately become very lucrative enterprise worldwide. I would rather let the government and the politicians answer the question why such stories become so easy to find in the country.

Hindu culture and its civilization alone will save India By Bharat on 1/25/2009 7:24:25 PM The people must rein in all educational and cultural institutions within Hindu ethos to save India. Be it Bollywood or educational curriculum, it must not be allowed to deviate from Hindu Sanskriti. Reject all that uses these institutions for Muslim and Christian indoctrination that will damage the children in the long run. The well informed and enlightened citizens must empower people to reject politicians, bureaucrats etc. who out of greed let these things happen and destroy India.

Hindu SLUMDOG By Sangam on 1/25/2009 7:13:01 PM Great article, I was about to watch this movie. Now, I HATE this pseudo-intellectualism of bad-mouth-anything-hindu so that you are par of elite!

hindu and islamist By ris on 1/25/2009 6:31:11 PM What Hindus need to do is join hand with islamist and deal with pesudo secularist and the white west( I see them a bigger enemy).....and then reach some kind of a settelment to issues between us.

India, world's favourite playground By P Paul on 1/25/2009 6:00:52 PM The argument presented by Kanchan Gupta seems very plausible but to me it is nothing more than the poverty tourism that has lately become very lucrative enterprise worldwide. As for the producer of the Slumdog Millionaire it is poverty tourism via celluloid for instant big profits. You only need a story that takes you through the familiar slums and I would rather let the government and the politicians answer the question.

What is the fuss all about? By Amar on 1/25/2009 1:52:46 PM What this movie and some silly names etc...? I am wondering people are watching movies now a days. If they show how Western Uncles, Moms and Aunties come and molest poor Indian children in Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Orissa etc....it would been an eye-opener. In Kerala every foreigner takes couple of children and a pimp who gives protection for the foreigners. Hope some Indian film this and get good award from Oscar!!!

Westwind By Ganesh on 1/25/2009 1:18:06 PM The urge for Oscar and GLobe awards among indian elite is more than an olympic medal. In the first place,acting and music are not universal arts. The way we react to a situation (which is otherwise known as acting)is conditioned by our culture and moorings.The emotions, the gestures of an Indian to a given situation will be different from that of a chinese or an american.So where is the common denominator in the art of acting.

Thank you Kanchan'da for putting it straight. By Tathagata Mukherjee on 1/25/2009 12:58:01 PM Add our "Obama" Rahul Baba also in this who is part of the whole axis of evil to show India down by his Miliband tour. We have been fed "hate anything Hindu" decades by Nehruwallas, Jholawals. The internationalists- Marxists, Islamists and Xtian Missionaries are united in this project.

Kanchan Gupta's write up By J.S.Acharya on 1/25/2009 11:58:40 AM Though I have not read the novel vy Vikas Swarup but the write up by Guptaji has opend up my eyes.Are Hindus really so bad ? Will the novelist agree with it?If he does not then he should strongly protest that his novel has been misinterpreted.

slumdog Hindus By R. Viswanathan on 1/25/2009 10:06:31 AM Don't blame Boyle, it is Nehruvian Hindus. Question is how get rid of their dominanation of Indian media. For a starter, dump Congress. But many many Hindus are themselves totally enamored of white skin and so to Congress. Wasn't JL Nehru the role model even for AB Vajpayee. So, what then. I don't see a way out for Hindus.

Vote with your wallets By What's in a name on 1/25/2009 9:19:45 AM Why are Hindus even watching this stuff? Boycott bollywho movies. The entire thing has been infiltrated by anti-Hindu elements that seek to spit at our tradition and us every opportunity. At least Hindus may stop funding their artistically-inept, hate-filled disasters that are devoid of truth. Don't encourage further hate movies by the parasitic ideologies that seek to take over the country: vote with your wallets.

Slumdog is about defaming Hindus By S Kiran on 1/25/2009 8:03:51 AM Some years ago, Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon was awarded Oscar for best international film. The only qualification for the film was that it was Taiwanese and anti-China sentiments were high in the US. Now it is turn of India to suffer. Anybody who has listened to Indian/Bollywood music can tell that the music of Slumdog is rubbish and can not count among top 20 in Bollywood hits. So much for the taste of Golden Globe......

slumdog By ram on 1/25/2009 7:11:40 AM This is the way to brainwash thier white masses called here as white trash about how pathetic ALL hindus are just as nazis brainwashed thier masses about jews.The next step is to prepare thier masses mentally to tolerate holocaust of hindus & why wmds have to be used to get rid of ALL hindus .This is the way THEY rule the world,the scum called racists of europe & america.Our corrupt dogs called rulers are sleeping like the Rajas before.

Exactly!!! By Anurag on 1/25/2009 6:00:43 AM Congratulations to Mr Gupta for haing guts to speak the truth. It seems that truth is the most convenient victim onthe mantle of the JNU kind of peudo-secularism. The whole thing about "this is real India" implies that everything else which is not so ugly is somehow untrue. Hindu cowardice is responsible for all this.

India, world's favourite playground By P Paul on 1/25/2009 5:51:03 AM The argument presented by Kanchan Gupta seems very plausible but to me it is nothing more than the poverty tourism that has lately become very lucrative enterprise worldwide. In India, there are tour operators who arrange guided tours of Dharvi, the largest slum in the Asian continent. There is, however, an ongoing debate whether or not poverty tourism helps those caught in the perpetual whirlpool of poverty. It is for NGOs or the government to produce documentaries on such issues to create awareness.

could not be more right By ramzo on 1/25/2009 4:36:26 AM Mr. Gupta hits it right. Danny Boyle had no business transforming the script to suit the west with some hindu muslim clashes, tension and victimized status for muslims.

Problem, Hindus never boycott the garbage. By J. Singh on 1/25/2009 3:21:57 AM These are the same British, who gave weapons to Pathans for invading Kashmir to kill more than a million Hindus in 1947, but not a single movie has been made by them re Kashmiri Pandits, Hindus, Hindus women and Children burnt alive in Sabarmati Expresss by muslims. Bollywood must be enjoying this, as they made so many movie about Modi, while islamists and jehadis burnt the world and India. In Lyrics, banned word Bhagvan and Khuda is in. Boycott this movie, at least in India.

Poverty tourism of India By Seema on 1/25/2009 3:18:24 AM Looks like Bharat is still top on the map of the west for poverty tourism. First this ridiculous politically incorrect video full of anti-Hindu prejudice and then congress's college dropout heir apparent took a foreign dignitary on poverty tourism of Bharat for some photo opportunities. Very nice article Mr. Gupta.

India Bashing As Usual By Manjunath on 1/25/2009 2:47:07 AM I do not think this movie deserves any special award, in any category. The movie makers know very well that when you show hindu's in a bad light and protray the filthy and dark side of India, they have a sure shot of reaping awards. I am not at all proud of this movies nominations to Oscar.

Slumdog is about defaming Hindus By Avinash K. Rangra on 1/25/2009 12:31:47 AM I have scheduled this movie at my theatre in Alpine (Texas) for exhibition in February, and will reserve my judgement till then. As regards other points raised by Gupta Saheb, I wholeheartedly agree with him. We of Indian origin go ga-ga over any comment made by a westerner regardless of its merits. It is like we seek validation (salvation!) of ourselves from an outsider. It is much better if the outsider is a westerner.

WHY SLUM DOGS By GAUTAM MALIK NORTH CAROLINA USA on 1/25/2009 12:23:19 AM WEST WILL PORTRAY HINDUS IN BAD LIGHT. BECAUSE THEY ARE SCARED OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM, HINDUS ON OTHER ARM ARE SEEN AS HARMLESS CREATURE. YOU CAN TREAT THEM THEIR CULTURE AND BELIEF SYSTEM SHABBILY WITHOUT ANY FEAR OF RETALIATION . HOST OF HINDUS WERE ASSOCIATED WITH THE PRODUCTION OF THIS MOVIE AND CONSIDER IT THE HEIGHT OF THEIR PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT . WORLD SHOULD KNOW WHEN YOU PRESSURIZE HINDUS BEYOND A CERTAIN POINT IT AROUSES THEIR ANGER

Fully agree By P Shankar on 1/24/2009 10:09:19 PM Spot on Kanchan Da ! Fully agree.Even Mr Bachan agrees with you but he cant say it in so many words as he has a lot riding on secularism Saw it in a theatre here in US and riot scenes were amazingly one sided. Anyone with even an inkling of Indian social situation would not agree with this version of the riots.And thats just one aspect of this movie.

correct By meenakshi on 1/24/2009 9:55:58 PM they cud have shown how mathadi workers were killed by muslims.