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IS INDIA
SHINING IN DANNY BOYLE'S
MIRROR? -
Philip P. Eapen |
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Author's webpage:
http://philip.eapen.googlepages.com
CAUTION: This review/comment on the
movie Slumdog Millionaire has plot-spoilers. We
recommend that you read this after watching the movie! |
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Indians the world over are pleased with the
scintillating performance of Slumdog Millionaire at the
Academy Awards. Eight Oscar award is no mean
achievement. Danny Boyle and his team deserve highest
praise for creating a multi-layered, intricate movie
that leaves a positive influence on all viewers.
Any Indian would feel proud of the success of Slumdog
Millionaire at the Oscars. Although this is a Hollywood
movie, there are enough elements in the movie that make
us Indians proud and happy. The movie is based on an
Indian novel Q&A written by Vikas Swarup. Indian actors,
Indian musicians and technicians including A.R. Rahman
and Resul Pookutty, have done the country proud by
bagging several Oscars.
When Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for the Academy
Awards, there were several criticisms from various
quarters. Many felt that the West was always bent on
portraying India has a large, dirty slum. Some did not
like the term Slumdog although in the movie it was a
local policeman who referred to slum children as dogs.
After the movie won 8 Osc ars for best adapted
screenplay, best cinematography, best movie, best
director, best original song, best original score, best
sound mixing, and best editing we began to hear a
different set of voices in this country. The Congress
party was quick to claim a share of the success by
glorying in its “inclusive” policies that led to
development of all sections of society! The Congress
spokesman said, “We are proud that in the conducive
environment of good governance provided by the UPA
government India has become achieving India.” Parents of
the child actors are demanding more money from the
film-makers. They ask to be moved to new apartments.
Their neighbours are turning green with envy.
There is a lot about this movie that is yet to be
mentioned in public discussions and in the media.
Although Slumdog Millionaire exposes the raw nature of
India's seamy side, the movie is not about India's dark
side! This is a great plus point. If Slumdog Millionaire
was about exposing India's underbelly, the movie would
have been a dark exercise, a tasteless misadventure.
Danny Boyle holds up a mirror to India, revealing many
of her sordid characteristics, as he narrates a positive
story of love and determination.
The heartiest thing about Slumdog Millionaire is that it
is an uplifting story about a young orphan boy called
Jamal, whose love for a childhood friend kept him alive
and upbeat, helping him to transcend all horrors that
life threw at him. His life is contrasted with that of
his elder brother Salim, who from childhood was selfish
and made wrong choices for the sake of making quick
money. Both the brothers finally ended up richone with
blood money that killed him, while the other, with
honesty, wit and grit.
The quiz competition “Kaun Banega Crorepati?” - which
provides a basic framework for the movie happens at the
end of a saga. Success in it provided Jamal a
springboard to start a new life with his childhood
sweetheart Latika. His heartless brother Salim does not
live to see it. When he perceived that his younger
brother was on the verge of success and fame, he was
filled with remorse for having tried to quench his
brother's love. He releases Latika from her captivity to
his underworld don. Then he locks himself in the don's
bathroom. He who had once locked his younger brother in
a slum toilet is now himself locked up in the rest room
of his underworld boss to kill Latika's captor and be
eventually killed by him. He paid with his life for
choosing a life a crime.
Under this story of loyal, steadfast love and generosity
of a small slum kid is the multi-level expose of what
“Shining India” really is. It is up to us Indians to
reflect on it and to act in the best interest of the
country.
First, this is not just another story about poor young
children. This is a story about poor young Muslim
children. It is common knowledge that a majority of
Muslims in India are backward in terms of their
educational, financial and social status. The Prime
Minister's high level committee studied the “Social,
Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community
in India.” The report, commonly known as the Justice Sachar Committee Report, exposes the backwardness of
Muslims in India. The report clearly showed that Muslims
were discriminated against at almost every level of
recruitment including to the level of class IV
employment. That Muslims rarely get a job in security or
intelligence agencies is an open secret. However, when
the government sought to intervene in this situation,
political parties that favour the domination of the
majority communities strongly opposed the move. Is it
any wonder then that many Muslim young people get into a
life of crime? The only thing that causes a headache for
the majority” community is the rapid multiplication of
the Muslim and Christian populations as if the former
achieved “majority” status by some means other than
reproduction!
Secondly, this story is not about just any Muslim
children. It is a story of Muslim children who were
orphaned by mindless communal violence unleashed by
Hindu fundamentalists. The movie does not hide this
point; nor is it apologetic about its presentation. I am
sure that many who protested against this movie were
actually irked by this point and not by the film's
portrayal of India's poverty.
How can we blame the West for portraying India as a
hotbed of communal violence? Muslims and Christians have
been victims of violent Hindu fundamentalists. The
states and their police do precious little to prevent
communal attacks or to mete out justice to victims. The
Central government washes its hands off the matter
saying the “law and order” belong to the state
government's portfolio. Even the formation of the new
National Investigating Agency does not offer any hope in
this regard. The NIA is limited to dealing with
terrorist offences. Why didn't Chidambaram include
communal riots in it's purview? We do not know. It is
not only in the area of prevention of terrorism that
state governments have proven to be powerless. State
governments such as those in Orissa and Gujarat did not
do enough to prevent the massacre of Christians and
Muslims. The UP government stood like a mere scarecrow
when a Hindu mob brought down the Babri Masjid. When
will India achieve rule of law and destroy the power of
violent mobs?
Third, Slumdog Millionaire exposes routine human rights
violations by the Indian police. Every one knows that
our police force has been using violent torture to bring
out the “truth” from “suspects.” In the movie, the show
host and the police suspect that slumdog Jamal has
cheated in the quiz. Jamal is subjected to torture by
suffocation under water and by electric shock.
In October 1997, the Government of India signed the
Convention Against Torture (CAT). Indian made the
following statement at that time: "The Convention
corresponds to the ethos of Indian democracy, rule of
law, individual freedom, personal liberty and security
enshrined in Indian polity. Signature of the Convention
Against Torture by India is an important milestone in
the process of India's continued commitment to
fundamental and human rights of all persons and
directive principles of national policy. Ratification of
the Convention is to follow."
Till date, India has not ratified the convention! Many
in the police approve of torture. Many politicians are
opposed to the ratification. They say the India can do
without international scrutiny of our police system and
that India already has laws to prevent torture. Strange!
Torture is so widespread in India. "India has the
highest number of cases of police torture and custodial
deaths among the world's democracies and the weakest law
against torture," said Ravi Nair, who heads the South
Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre. "The police
often operate in a climate of impunity, where torture is
seen as routine police behaviour to extract confessions
from small pickpockets to political suspects."
When will this “great country” learn to respect human
rights? How can we say “Mera Bharat Mahan”, My India is
Great, until we wipe out these evils? True patriotism is
not in hiding our flaws; it is in wishing to see an
India without flaws. It is heartening to see that under
the leadership of the new home minister, Mr. P.
Chidambaram, the Government is initiating steps to pass
a new law against torture. Once the Prevention of
Torture Bill becomes a law and once India ratifies the
CAT, the common man can heave a sigh of relief. Under
the new law, torturing anybody on the ground of his
race, religion, place of birth, residence, language,
caste and community would also be a punishable offence.
Fourth, Slumdog Millionaire is obviously quite honest in
its portrayal of the squalor in our urban slums. When I
visited Mumbai for the first time, the first impression
I got was that this was a metropolis built on a rubbish
heap! Mountains of garbage, with children playing on
them, are a common sight. Raw sewage, debris, hazardous
wastes ... you name it, it's all there in our slums and
in our cities.
For some reason, Indians are conditioned in a special
way to consider themselves “pure” and “clean” once waste
is out of their immediate system! Once a man or woman
defecates often in public spaces under the full glare of
passing crowds he or she feels “clean.” It does not
occur to him or her that he/she has dirtied the place!
The house owner who throws a banana peel out of his
window, a traveller who throws a plastic bag or cup out
of the train/car window, a office boy who dumps a bag
load of paper waste into the neighbouring vacant plot, a
municipality truck that dumps city wastes into an open
space in a neighbouring village, someone who squirts red
panspit out of a bus window or into the corner of a
staircasewe “Indians” are relieved when “waste” is
thrown out of our system! The trouble is, we have such a
limited definition of what “our system” is all about.
Sometimes, we consider just our bodies as “our system.”
Sometimes, we are generous enough to include our house
or courtyard into what constitutes “our system!” But
roads, public spaces, our neighbour's plot, our
neighbouring villagesthese are all out of “our system.”
What better illustration of our “Indian” selfishness.
I have seen households in Maharashtra throwing their
wastes on to the streets in front of their homes. When
households on both sides of the streets throw their
wastes on to the same road, the trash accumulates right
in the middle of the road! Children play on top of these
rubbish mounts. They defecate on the waste heapright in
the middle of the road! What a convenience! And these
fellow Indians are happy because their trash is out of
their bodies and out of their houses!
Fifth, the movie shows the underworld of Mumbai and it's
ugly manifestations. The underworld exploits poor
children and infants, indulges in crime, patronises
large red-light areas and promotes human trafficking.
Poor children are fed into the system to become beggars,
thieves, prostitutes, and criminals. On one hand, Indian
worship female deities; on the other, we turn a blind
eye to the trafficking and exploitation of women.
Everyone from the lowest official to the highest
echelons of power are clueless when it comes to
eradication of red-light areas and the rehabilitation of
exploited women.
Finally, the movie shows a tiny bit about the prevalent
climate of irrationality in India. In the police station
scenes, an obese constable tries to watch a video. When
the TV set doesn't work, in a characteristic “Indian”
way, he hits the TV cabinet a couple of times! It's
interesting to note how Danny Boyle has captured this
detail!
Most Indians think that a malfunctioning TV set or an
audio system or even a laptop needs a beating to make it
functioning. This reveals a far worse problem. We are
not bothered about any cause or effect relationship.
What does a TV set make of a hit? Is it afraid of us? We
are not bothered about logical progression in our
arguments. Unreasonable superstitions fascinate us. Our
educated young people work in ultra-modern offices on
the latest of technologies. And yet, you will find a
lemon and a few chillies dangling from the top of their
front office door. That is to ward off evil! Just how
does lemon and chillies ward off evil? Oh no! You are
not supposed to question religious beliefs. Educated
India is pulled from both sideson one side is Western
logic and reasoning that gave birth to the scientific
revolution; on the other, Eastern superstition that
undermines India's progress.
Slumdog Millionaire deserves highest praise most of all
for giving a face to the multitude of Indian children
who live in slums and on streets. They fight an
indifferent system, find odd-jobs in hotels and
industries, sell goods in trains, fight oppressors. A
few of them emerge as winners.
One slumdog winner, like the show host, hates to see
another slumdog come up in life. And yet an
underdog who preferred generosity to selfishness, chose
love over hatred, loyalty over unfaithfulness, honest
labour instead of a life of falsehood triumphed. Virtue
triumphs in the long run, inspite of adversity.
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This page
is updated on March 15, 2009 |
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PRAISE THE ALMIGHTY
10 YEARS CELEBRATION
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