Slum Dog Millionaire is raking millions of dollars world wide and is supposed to make Indians proud having got so many awards.

What is shocking is that this movie is in the top 34 movies of all time in IMDB! This is definitely one of the most inconsistent movies that I have ever seen.

The only reason why this movie is a hit is because it exaggerates incredible things. This is definitely a very unrealistic movie. The thing with Americans is that, like all out going individuals, they too want to see and experience exotic and new events in their life. Now, the India that is depicted in the movie is totally not true and yet it is easy for foreigners to believe that this how India is at this moment.

Take for example the Movie Borat. This extremely disgusting and supposedly humorous movie made lots of money in the US. The lead in the movie is from Kazakhstan a country about 99% in the world does not know where it is located in the map. So the lead in the movie goes about saying stuff about Kazakhstan and is portrayed as a sexist, homophobic and antisemitic. There are too many implied ridicules about Kazakhs. The point is that this makes a believable parody and it blatantly denigrates Kazakhstan. The thing is that since nobody knows where Kazakhstan is there will be no end to the amount of fiction that you can create. I wonder if the lead in the movie Borat was depicted as hailing from New Zealand, or Australia or England, it would have the same impact on the American audiences. Here also the selling point is the exoticness of Kazakhstan which got the approval from the Americans.

No wonder wikipedia says this about Borat:

“Despite a limited initial release in the United States, the satire was a critical and commercial success. Cohen won the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor: Musical or Comedy, as Borat, while the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture in the same category.^[2] Borat was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 79th Academy Awards.”

No wonder Slum Dog is getting the same reception as well. This misrepresentation of reality so endeared the movie to the Americans that they went blind to the faults glaring out from the movie.

This movie is not only inconsistent but also illogical. For example an answer for the show, “Who wants to be a millionaire” is Benjamin Franklin. And yet a child beggar in the slums of Mumbai who is blind knows Benjamin Franklin on the dollar note. Of all the possibilities, imagine the odds of a beggar knowing that!

Anil Kapoor is shown being concerned that a Slum Dog gets away with so much money. Why does he even care. He acts as if he has to give the money out of his own pocket! He is just an anchor and has got nothing to lose even if Slum Dog wins or loses and yet he misleads Jamal into picking the wrong answer.

Jamal loves the girl of his dreams, that is fine. Yet somehow, even after the girl sleeps with his own brother he still cherishes her!

If you see the top movies in IMDB the most noticeable feature present is consistency in characterization. His brother is shown to be selfish, cunning and sick in the beginning. Yet, he turns a new leaf suddenly and decides to take his own life for the sake of his brothers’ girl friend.

And Jamal himself, he is shown to be very street smart and determined as shown in one scene where he wades through a pile of human crap just to get an autograph from Big B Mr Amitabh Bhachan. Yet, he suddenly turns innocent and falters through every question in the contest.

Inspite of all these glaring holes in the weak script, just because it is getting the lime light in the US many Indians continue to chant that this is as an excellent movie. No wonder then, when the famous Swami Vivekananda was questioned why he went to the US to preach Hinduism when he could have done so in India itself, he replied that it would create a reaction back at home. No wonder then that when his greatness was acknowledged in the Parliament of Religions, immediately he was hailed as a Supreme teacher back in India.

Similarly, when Rabindranath Tagore composed Gitanjali, he was not appreciated by fellow Indians and yet when he won the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature immediately guests started pouring in saying that his poetry was beautiful. Rabindranath Tagore gave them a piece of his mind to them at that time!

We are exactly like Jamal and his cohorts in the movie who become very happy when they are treated with lots of food and fun by the beggar mafia don. Jamal says, “He must be a saint!”.  In the same way Danny Boyle and his mates are treating India to the BAFTA awards or so on and we are becoming happy not understanding that all that is really happening is that shit load of money is being made by them for depicting India’s poverty in an unrealistic way.

Americans are shown as being nice who even give away 100$ after getting their car stolen. This is narcissism at its best.

If there is any Indian who thinks that this movie has not shown India in a poor light then consider these statements made by people from other countries taken from various forums:

After watching this does anybody want to go to india?

Not even for a visit. People call it a “poverty tour.” Although it does highlight the “new India,” it does largely depict India as a terrible place to live–with corrupt cops, and criminals that blind children for profit.

Another viewer opines:

The fact of the matter is nobody in their right mind would want to go to India after how it is shown in Slumdog Millionaire.

The other two posters are Indians who are trying to have their cake and eat it at the same time. They are saying to us that this film is just a fiction and thus its OK to set it in slums etc and misrepresent here and there. We are saying that this IS going to create a bad image of India. Just like Temple of Doom did. You and many have confirmed that.

They just don’t know how media works. It doesn’t make a difference if it is fiction or non-fiction, the selection of details has an influence on the viewer.

It is not surprising that this movie is a low budget one and I can wager a Million dollars if I have them, that this movie could have been shot in just 30 days. There is absolutely no substance in this movie.

One final million dollar question that still lingers is WHY? WHY DID JAMAL NOT WALK AWAY WITH THE MONEY WHEN HE ALREADY WON SO MANY MILLIONS. Its not as if he is a well educated youth who can try and get away with luck. He is an uneducated smart ass. When there was no logical reason to continue and risk losing everything, WHY did he do it? Surely he would not have expected to get the remaining questions mysteriously right. Even with ALL the LUCK that unrealistically helped him get this far in the show!

If this movie ACTUALLY WINS an OSCAR for the best picture, be sure that for the first time in the American movie history a totally unworthy movie has been awarded one of the most coveted award that often times is denied to the best of the best.

And one last point: The way Salim was portrayed towards the ending of the movie is highly reminiscent of scenes from “The City of God.” How original is that?

However AR Rehman’s score is commendable and deserves an Oscar!

After watching this, does anyone else just not want to go to India?

After watching this, does anyone else