Culture: Slumming it Up
Poverty, gangsters, tourism: Lauren Whybrow looks at the many faces of Slumdog Millionaire.
If I say ‘slum’, what comes to mind? Poverty? Squalor? “Feel-good movie of the year?” Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle, and winner of a Golden Globe, BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Picture, has been marketed as an uplifting and feel-good tale by both the publicity department of Fox Searchlight and various reviewers. Whilst it is hardly a spoiler to reveal that in the end the boy gets the girl, this occurs at the conclusion of a movie that encompasses torture, murder, poverty, scamming, betrayal and abandonment – hardly qualities found in a Disney movie.
The central character of Slumdog Millionaire is Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), an 18-year-old char-wallah from the slums of Mumbai, who is close to winning the Indian version of the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He is on the show so that his one true love, Latika (Frieda Pinto), can find him. Accused of cheating before he can answer the final question, Jamal takes us (and the police) on a journey through his life to explain how he knew the answers to each question. For example, when asked, “In depictions of the god Rama, he is famously holding what in his right hand?”, Jamal answers with information sourced from the anti-Muslim riots in his slum that resulted in his mother’s death.
Slumdog Millionaire is a movie that is truly alive. As the camera weaves its way around the gritty slums and well-worn trains of India, the colours leap off the screen. It is definitely worth viewing, if only so that you can develop your own opinions about the many criticisms of the film that have emerged.
“As the camera weaves its way around the gritty slums and well-worn trains of India, the colours leap off the screen.”
Slumdog Millionaire was adapted from a Vikram Swarup novel originally called Q&A. As Shakespeare’s Juliet would say: “What’s in a name?” Well, protests against the word ‘slum’ for a start. For the residents of Dharavi in Mumbai, where the scenes of Jamal’s early childhood were filmed, the use of the word ‘slum’ to describe their homes resulted in a protest of reportedly 2,000 people. One of the criticisms was that Boyle didn’t address the diversity and resourcefulness of slum life. However, to give Slumdog Millionaire some credit, Boyle does try to capture a glimpse of this subculture. In the opening scene alone, police chase through the slum jerks and weave through businesses such as barbers, food stalls, and finally a school.
The Mumbai protest has struck a chord with reviewers, such as Gautaman Bhaskaran from The Japan Times, who have accused the movie of only portraying the criminal underbelly of India. Jamal, his brother Samil (Madhur Mittal) and Latika all grow up in a slum, and are eventually forced into a gang of beggars. Samil ends up working for a gangster, and Latika becomes one of the gangster’s girlfriends.
Slumdog Millionaire is fictional, and is, furthermore, an attempt to tell one man’s story. It does not reflect a universal experience. But not to worry! The emergence of reality tourism gives you the chance to make up your own mind about Slumdog’s portrayal of slums.
Reality Tours and Travels conduct tours of Dharavi in order to dispel the negative image of slum life. Or, if that doesn’t go far enough, you can follow the example of one Australian family and permanently move to a Mumbai slum. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Mark and Cathy Delaney have lived in shanty towns in Delhi for 13 years in order to learn from the poor and experience slum life. Mark called it a “radical detox” from consumerism.
Slumdog Millionaire is not the first representation of Mumbai’s slums in Western pop culture. In his semi-autobiographical novel Shantaram, Geoffrey David Roberts tells of moving to a Mumbai slum, partly to escape the Australian police. But I wouldn’t read it if you are looking to avoid representations of India’s criminal underbelly. Roberts ends up working for a gangster, too.
Slumdog has also been accused of glamorising poverty and slum life, a charge that slum tourism surely doesn’t help. Poor Danny Boyle can’t seem to win – anything except an Oscar, that is.
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