Slumdog Millionaire was made about the people of Mumbai’s teeming slums, but it was not made for them.
In the squalid shantytowns of Nehru Nagar, where parts of the Oscar-nominated film were shot, there was little of the excitement that has swept India since the low budget film emerged from obscurity to win four Golden Globes and 10 Oscar nominations.
Many of the slum’s residents greeted Friday’s India release of the movie with indifference. Most had never heard of the Academy Awards, and the neighborhood Hindi-language theater had no plans to screen the Hindi version of the film, Slumdog Crorepati.
“We don’t even talk about it,” said Shabana Shaikh, 39, who lives in Nehru Nagar — a warren of small houses and shops built of brick, corrugated metal, cement and tarpaulins in northern Mumbai.
Shot on a modest US$14 million budget, Slumdog Millionaire tells the alternately heartwarming and horrific tale of Jamal Malik, a street orphan in Mumbai whose pursuit of love carries him to triumph on India’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Directed by British filmmaker Danny Boyle with visceral cinematography and fluid edits, the film draws the viewer into the squalor but ends with unexpected hope.
Slumdog’s rattling iron roofs and sick-sweet sewers, its pickup cricket games, clucking chickens and dirty teal barbershops are all here in Nehru Nagar. There are impish boys, the constant buzz of commerce, sleeping dogs, one-eyed cats, and, up high, endless lines of tired laundry.
In real life, however, things are slower and hotter, the streets are more broken and the smells — of dirt, defecation, death — are stronger.
For the residents of Nehru Nagar, such stuff is not cinematic, it is home.
And most of them rarely go to movies.
The price of a ticket, which ranges from 60 rupees to 120 rupees (US$1.22 to US$2.44) at theaters near Nehru Nagar, is too steep.
“Will you give us tickets?” said Regina Munshi, a mother of three whose husband makes about US$3 a day as a driver. “On that money, you can’t take five people to the movies.”
When they do go, they prefer the Bollywood staples of rich guys, gangsters and big song-and-dance numbers, not the grim reality of their daily lives.
The few who are drawn to the film say it is only because they love the music of composer A.R. Rahman, who was nominated for three Oscars, and because they are fans of the movie’s two Indian stars, Irrfan Khan and Anil Kapoor.
Or, they had personal reasons.
Rafik Shaikh, a 37-year-old bus driver, said the filmmakers shot a scene in his home. He doesn’t know much about the Oscars, but he’s keen to see it.
He said he hopes to catch sight of the family dog, which died a few months after filming.
He said he was proud to show off his single room, with its chipping lime walls, neat folded blankets and rows of stainless steel pots that his bride brought as a dowry.
“I was more than happy to show off the reality here,” said Shaikh, sitting on his narrow bed with his daughters, two round-faced girls with braids. “I was happy my house would be seen.”
Bootleg DVD’s of Slumdog, which have been selling fast in more prosperous areas, have not made their way through Nehru Nagar’s tightly packed lanes of single-room homes and fly-covered garbage dumps.
Still, many are familiar with the broad outlines of Slumdog Millionaire: A child of their own streets makes it big. And this is a theme they can embrace, particularly the kids that run barefoot down small, sun-flecked alleys.
Two dozen kids stood around, grooming a dirt field for a game of cricket as the afternoon sun settled behind piles of burning garbage.
Nearby, Ajit Devender, 11, the son of a rag-picker, practiced taking brave, flying leaps off a brick wall that gives onto an airstrip behind the slum, mimicking a scene at the beginning of Slumdog Millionaire.
He saw the filming of the movie and said he would try to go to the theaters to see Hollywood’s take on his home.
“If I have money, I’ll go,” he said. “Even I would like to be a millionaire.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese