Is Slumdog Millionaire A Case Of Poverty Porn? Options

[parag_sankla]

I have not seen the film yet, but have read many reviews. My conclusion based on them is that the western world (British director - the same people who ruled us for over 150 years) has made an excellent piece of poverty porn out of India. The projection of Mumbai and India as a whole is slum (as if there are no homeless people in the developed countries). Using the word dog (even if some one defends that its a newly coined word = slum + underdog = slumdog) is derogatory.

Views most welcome.

Jai Hind!

[Marcilo]

Using the word dog (even if some one defends that its a newly coined word = slum + underdog = slumdog) is derogatory.

I do not think that is the case, just my personal opinion. I have not seen the movie however.
Coming to word dog… well..How may times have you heard this "whats up you dawg (dog)".. I guess it's a cultural thing. Lots of African American population uses this word, uses frequently and all the time. Even we use the word … during such and such tournament of hockey, India was underdog. It's still the same word.

Agreed movie is made by someone who is not Indian, so do we not smack others with comments? Guess what sholay would have been outright banned for racial slur… aab tera kaya hoga "kaalia". Dang on it…. that famous dialogue would have gone down the drain in no time. Even though Kaalia (pundits) is a caste in India but hey … this can go as racial slur here in west. In any case Kaalia of sholey was named for his "color".

But come to think of it, huge mega hit.. "kaalia", yet another dang… mangel pandy had lots of racial overtones but that was ok since it did happen, its part of histroy. Well, so did "dharavi", one of largest slums in India or Asia may be? These are parts of India, we like it or not. We cannot force any one to show walkways of rashtra-pati bhavan.

Try watching a movie called "Party" (peter sellers - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063415/ ), it was banned in India. I never found that movie to be offensive, like I did not find green card fever (milk please @ MacDonalds ) offensive. Had someone from bollywood played role of hrundi, we would have been ok.