Mmmm... how do I say that the movie didn't blow me away without saying exactly that? As flicks go, it was fine, and better than many I've seen but it boggles me mind that it's getting these rave reviews and is raking in the awards. Really? BAFTA? Oscars? Is this the best that the film establishment can produce? You know what, I'm going to take that back... this is probably as good as any schmaltzy "Oscar-contendah" film is likely to be.
I gather that los Indios are offended by the title and the representation of the slums of Bombay but I'm not bothered by those things -- it's a catchy title and the slums of Bombay have been legendary for centuries (if you don't believe me, get yourself a Flora Annie Steele to read...) but does the representation of the slums and slum-life have to be quite so predictable and melodramatic at the same time? I mean, after Salaam Bombay!? Witness: police brutality, corruption, the oft-told tale of the beggar-kids being "run" by a minor mobster, who also brutally disfigures them so as to make them more sympathetic and let's not forget the whore with the heart of gold. Actually, I suppose she's a separate topic altogether, but again such a predictable one. And then there's the question of Bollywood -- as genre -- to consider. And here's where I think Boyle fell down on the job badly.
We tend to think of Bollywood as a supremely melodramatic genre and it is certainly that but that very melodrama means that the kinds of binary conflicts between good and bad that Slumdog Millionaire posits form the most common plots in Bollywood flicks. Amitabh, referenced slyly (in one of the few clever moments in Slumdog) made his reputation in the "angry young man" movies of the early 1970s in movies that pitted the corrupt and brutal against the poor but good. Slums and the mobs who run slums feature frequently and equally melodramatically in dozens of Bollywood flicks every year. Oh, and most of them have beautiful but dumb and wronged heroines, too, including many who have to be rescued from brothels and bordellos. The brother who goes bad? One of the commonest tropes of Bollywood, dating at least as far back as Mother India (1957). Not to mention Ganga Jamuna and Deewar.
Given the wealth of this history, and given that Slumdog is the coincidence-driven melodrama that it is, Boyle could have done something really interesting by cleverly alluding to the tradition that he is drawing on; instead, we have this film that doesn't seem at all plausible by the standards of realism (someone tell me where the brothers learn English, please?) and also doesn't do anything to acknowledge the genre that it draws on and belongs within.
So my somewhat dismal conclusion is that the film is designed to attract a liberal white middle-class audience, and that it succeeds at that. I've no problems with that -- Hollywood is famous for its not-quite-radical "liberalism," right? But let's be honest: that's pretty much the only reason it's getting the hype it's getting. And because Boyle, a liberal white middle class dude, make it. If Slumdog Millionaire was a Bollywood production, which it ought to have been, given its plot and genre, it wouldn't have generated any kind of buzz outside India.
Two last points -- I didn't actually dislike the film -- yes, I disliked bits of it but I thought it a slightly above average movie. I particularly liked how the film was shot: the aerial shots of the slum are stunning and do suggest the aesthetic appeal of distancing; the nod to the call-centre industry was interesting and could have been developed more; and Boyle proves something that I've always suspected (that Indians and the British share a scatalogical humour).
And finally, that there is much more interesting cinema coming out to India, certainly, "parallel cinema" within India and recent diasporic films offer some really fascinating takes on life in India (and in the diaspora). Increasingly, too, there are also Bollywood flicks that offer up food for thought and not just escape. With that said, here's my own totally idiosyncratic list of India-related movies to watch in no particular order:
- Life... in a Metro
- Monsoon Wedding
- Roti, Kapada aur Makaan (I misidentified this in the post on Dhaal)
- Rock On!!! (I reviewed this when I was in India...)
- Hyderabd Blues
- Haare Rama, Haare Krishna (someday I'm going to write on this one...)
- Lagaan (yes, it's long. and about cricket. deal with it.)
- Bhopal Express
- Bazaar (Naseeruddin Shah in early days... in a film about the real horrors of prostitution.)
- Mughal-E-Azaam
- Saawariya (reviewed that too...)
- Rang De Basaanti (India's official entry for the Oscars in 2006, I think.)
- Phir Milenge (melodrama about an AIDS victim)
- Bombay (from the 80s.)
- Kal Ho Naa Ho
- Pardesi
