there ve been these articles on it telling it was nothing more than a perverted showcasing of india to westerners.. the way they see it, the way they want to see it n all.. i ve always beleived these kind of reviews to be hypocrisy, cheap publicity stunts n all.. and especially when arindam choudari wrote on it, i was convinced these guys were upto no good..
but then check out the article below..
its written by a catholic from paris, son of a parish head in a church in paris..
Religion, Marxism and Slumdog
François Gautier
WHY did a film like Slumdog Millionaire, which conveys an utterly negative image of India — slums, exploitation, poverty, corruption, anti Muslim pogroms — create so many waves in the West, pre and post Oscars? And why does not the Indian government protest, as the Chinese would indeed have, for a twisted and perverted portrayal of its own reality? There are several answers: When the missionaries began to evangelise India, they quickly realised that Hinduism was not only practised by a huge majority, but that it was so deeply rooted that it stood as the only barrier to their subjugating the entire subcontinent.They therefore decided to demonise the religion, by multiplying what they perceived as its faults, by one hundred: caste, poverty, child marriage, superstition, widows, sati … Today, these exaggerations, which at best are based on quarter-truths, have come down to us and have been embedded not only in the minds of many Westerners, but also unfortunately, of much of India’s intelligentsia.We Westerners continue to suffer from a superiority complex over the socalled Third World in general and India in particular. Sitting in front of our television sets during prime time news, with a hefty steak on our table, we love to feel sorry for the misery of others, it secretly flatters our ego and makes us proud of our so-called ‘achievements’.That is why books such as The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, which gives the impression that India is a vast slum, or a film like Slumdog Millionaire, have such an impact.In this film, India’s foes have joined hands. Today, billions of dollars that innocent Westerners give to charity are used to convert the poorest of India with the help of enticements such as free medical aid, schooling and loans.If you see the Tamil Nadu coast posttsunami, there is a church every 500 metres. Once converted, these new Christians are taught that it is a sin to enter a temple, do puja, or even put tilak on one’s head, thus creating an imbalance in the Indian psyche (In an interview to a British newspaper, Danny Boyle confessed he wanted to be a Christian missionary when he was young and that he is still very much guided by these ideals — so much for his impartiality).Islamic fundamentalism also ruthlessly hounds India, as demonstrated by the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, which are reminiscent of the brutality and savagery of a Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single act of savagery.Indian communists, in power in three states, are also hard at work to dismantle India’s cultural and spiritual inheritance. And finally, the Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and cultural fabric with its superficial glitter, even though it has proved a failure in the West. Slumdog plays cleverly with all these elements.Many of the West’s India-specialists are staunchly anti-Hindu, both because of their Christian upbringing and also as they perpetuate the tradition of Max Mueller, the first ‘Sankritist’ who said: “The Vedas is full of childish, silly, even monstrous conceptions. It is tedious, low, commonplace, it represents human nature on a low level of selfishness and worldliness and only here and there are a few rare sentiments that come from the depths of the soul”.This tradition is carried over by Indologists such as Witzel or Wendy Doniger in the US, and in France where scholars of the state-sponsored CNRS, and its affiliates such as EHESS, are always putting across in their books and articles detrimental images of India: caste, poverty, slums — and more than anything — their pet theories about ‘Hindu fundamentalism’.Can there be a more blatant lie? Hinduism has given refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the Tibetans, allowing them all to practise their religion freely.And finally, it is true that Indians, because they have been colonised for so long (unlike the Chinese) lack nationalism.Today much of the intellectual elite of India has lost touch with its cultural roots and looks to the West to solve its problems, ignoring its own tools, such as pranayama, hata-yoga or meditation, which are very old and possess infinite wisdom.Slumdog literally defecates on India from the first frame. Some scenes exist only in the perverted imagery of director Danny Boyle, because they are not in the book of Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat, on which the film is based. In the book, the hero of the film (who is not Muslim, but belongs to many religions: Ram Mohammad Thomas) does not spend his childhood in Bombay, but in a Catholic orphanage in Delhi. Jamal’s mother is not killed by “Hindu fanatics’, but she abandons her baby, of unknown religion, in a church. Jamal’s torture is not an idea of the television presenter, but of an American who is after the Russian who bought the television rights of the game. The tearful scene of the three children abandoned in the rain is also not in the book: Jamal and his heroine only meet when they are teenagers and they live in an apartment and not in a slum.And finally, yes, there still exists in India a lot of poverty and glaring gaps between the very rich and the extremely poor, but there is also immense wealth, both physical, spiritual and cultural — much more than in the West as a matter of fact.When will the West learn to look with less prejudice at India, a country that will supplant China in this century as the main Asian power? But this will require a new generation of Indologists, more sincere, less attached to their outdated Christian values, and Indians more proud of their own culture and less subservient to the West.
it was sort of an eye opener.. does it take someone like gautier to remind me to save a bit of my culture for my grandson's grandson..?
religion is meant to make people love.. why does it make them hate?
why do people believe that they are doing good to their religion just by making more people believe in it? does that just not betray a lack of understanding, a disbelief in in the widely possible diversity in creation and consequently in creation itself.. when you sympathise rather than lend a honest selfless helping hand, you glorify your impudence..
why hasnt it occurred to a single politician to screw vote bank politics and bag the basic indian 's vote by addressing issues that make sense to everyone in general.?
its obvious isnt it.. you make rice free, you get the south indian's vote. you make wheat free, you get the north indian's vote. screw food, you make our locality terror free, we ll both vote for you..
4 comments:
Freaking crazy sons of bitches, man.
The entire lot of them. Glorifying a country by taking an inside joke at its people, and weren't they always good at it.
You can sell just about anything in this era of darn management. Trash the ppl and sell the product to them.
Kinda reminds me of Fight Club. The way they sell rich women their own asses back.
Sons of bitches.
And aren't we all its proud slaves??
Jai Ho! F***.
we still have the colonial hangover.as long as our mindset changes nothin much can be done abt the way the world sees.
but then y are we so scared to accept things?.the same communal riots were shown by mani ratnam in bombay n we just loved it.but wts wrong if danny boyle or simon beaufy does the same. gujurat riots happened not so long ago.lets face it all those things that are shown is a part of india.jus cos a westerner does we are up in arms cos he EXPLOITED our poverty and made some bucks.Its what pepse coke mc donalds does.y blame danny.
recently i saw naan kadavul which showed the begging mafia.but most of us loved it jus cos it was bala.
abt politicians its debated for long.time to get our hands dirty.
@dipak ragav
in our attempt to build a secular state, communal riots WILL be part of the deal. U can't throw in ppl of various beliefs and races and expect them to live happily ever after.
No country is an exception to civil or communal tension, why, aren't segments of cities in the US divided on the basis of White and Black majorities.
If you want zero communal riots, impose a freaking dictator, turn ur country into an islamic or hindu state, and witness the suppression of the minority at the speed of light.
We don't shy away from the fact that we do live among poverty, we witness hunger and unemployment, but that's the catch, the magnitude at which these things are shown differs. Nobody is freaking scared of accepting anything, but its this 'Holier Than Thou' attitude that the West shows towards us, as if their own social ills are lesser than ours, that provokes the Indian in me.
You know they are one fucked up lot who live half their lives on dope, and the other half depending on ppl from '3rd world' nations to do their work for them.
Hinduism is a predominantly tolerant religion. We do provide a long rope for other faiths to mushroom around our vicinity. But that does not mean that we do not know how to defend our beliefs from fading out.
And don't even compare Bala's 'Nan Kadavul' with Slumdog.
Bala's work was an uncompromisingly realistic take on the affairs of the begging mafia.. while Slumdog is a trashy tale of an underdog who lives in the-forbidden-land and goes on to become a millionaire through the most ridiculous process ever. It is commercial low-life sell-it-to-the-billions cinema taken by a half baked director who lost his sheen way back in 1996.
IMO Bala>>>>>Boyle.
Nothing Indian about Slumdog, starting from their fake accents to the destiny-crap at the end. Never deserved those oscars, Departed was way better.
Creative liberty is one thing, while trashing a country for western losers to shake their heads and say 'Aiyo Paavam' is diff.
Crap. Free :D
@ck
i was nt talkin whether it deserved the oscar or not.bt just told we are making a huge fuss abt poverty shown in the film.sdm is more a story abt hope love n beleif than ridiculing poverty or social awakening.
to safeguard our relegion we have the rss shiv sena ram sena laxman sena or the put them broadly as vanara sena.dont worry as long as they exist nothin much can be done
its nt gr8 film but better than departed hands down anyday. :D
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