I watched the film last Sunday and it definitely is a movie well made. There may be some technical shortfalls, but one can’t deny the facts that the movie has entertaining elements to creative minds. I am not a creative critic to comment on the techniques, but as an audience, I really enjoyed the movie. It’s a great product and as a product user, I am happy (bang for the buck!).

I totally agree with your comments on Oscars – I tried to digg in about this when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won Oscars. In my opinion, Halle Berry has limited acting capabilities and at the time the reason for her winning the award was an open secret. Hollywood is obsessed with this kind of behavior – want to “encourage” different communities, gays, lesbians etc. It’s not so hard to relate Sean Penn’s comments in his acceptance speech this year.

Awards are also influenced by politics of the time in the US. Hollywood is largely democratic, but there are a few republican elements there. Oscar, by no means is a benchmark for the best. Definitely, all the movies that get nominated have a good benchmark, but beyond that, it’s all politics, marketing and mood swing of judges.

- Girish.

You do write beautifully in Kannada and that just reminds me how left behind I am!

this is jeevan from mangalore..i read u r artical about slumdog last sunday, actually i also agree with u r artical.. while watching tha movee i didn’t got that much exitement when i watched movees like Black, Rangde Basanthi or Tare Zameen par….

I dont Know why so many peple making so much issue about this movee…
ther r many exellent movees in kannada also wher v can send this movees to oscar…

Whatevr happens that is good. coz atlast Indians won the awards that’s great…

Sir i heard that u r from mangalore and won the national award for u r film… when v can able to watch u r movees sir, coz i am the one person who love all type of movees may b it is commercial or Art films. Why dont u make a film about SEZ problams or other social issues wher people educate through this media….

Whatver congrats for u r work.. and keep intouch sir if u r free….

take care and good luck…

Regards from
Jeevan mangalore…

Thanks for the mail. I am glad my write up made you take so much pain to write to me in such detail. Thanks once again for that. But let me my self clear on the points raised by you. And well, I am not a journalist but am a film maker my self. I am a graduate from the Film and Television Institute of India. (so a trained filmmaker my self) though I don’t claim that I am an expert and I understand everything just because I am from a film school, my arguments about Slum Dog come with substantial background in film studies. So let’s go point by point as dealt by you.

1. About the KBC being live: There are some technical and logistical problems in telecasting a reality show live. Firstly all the reality shows are edited and not real time shoots. Most of them are also scripted! Cricket matches are also not totally live. They call it a differed telecast. The telecast of the match is about 2-3 minute last than the original match happening at the location. But it’s not impossible to have a live show (technically). So I am not saying that you can’t show a game show live. But don’t show KBC live because it’s a known fact. It’s not about doing what others have done, but twisting a fact. For me, the creativity would have been, creating a new game show similar to the KBC which according to the film was a live show. In that case, I wouldn’t have had problem in that point. When you base your story on something which is fictitious, say its fiction. Don’t try to simulate reality. There is no harm in creating an imaginary thing in film. But why make it look like a documentation when it is not? Constructing a ‘story’ is one thing and constructing a ‘news’ is another thing. I hope you get my point. And about Kannada film, I agree with you that they suffer from the lack of imagination no doubt about that. But there is a whole different angle to it which I don’t think we need to discuss right now. May be we can talk about it some other time.
2. Language part: I have no problem if the film uses English or Hindi completely. But when you mix it in a not believable form then the problem starts. This is again a problem of simulated reality. It wouldn’t have harmed the film if you show all the characters spoke their mother tongue. Just for the wider reach if you use Engilsh, then you are not being true to the subject you are dealing with right? Again as written in my article, did Rama speak in Hindi? Did Tipu Sultan speak in Hindi? Did the people of Malgudi speak in Hindi? No still we are convinced because there is uniformity in the language usage. So the suspension of disbelieve works there and thus the brain negates the language change. That is a common practice in filmmaking. When you start changing the language, then you have to be extra careful about the language and dialects. If you see any good film even in Kannada (say any Kasaravalli film) they pay so much attention to the language and use the particular dialect to be truthful to the text. So my argument was to oppose the usage of language just as a tool to give the audience ‘India Flavor’. India is a living being not a flavor which can be added in to ice cream! And about Dev Patel’s English, there is a clear difference in accent to his earlier stages of life and his own. I don’t say a call center boy can’t learn English. But a call center chaiwala (as referred in the film) picking up a perfect accent is again far from possible. I don’t know if you have visited any call center or interacted with the workers there. But I have. So if you do explore their world, you would know, most of the call center workers too can’t speak perfect English (which Dev Patel speaks!) other than their routine usages. And for the Mungaru Male example. Yes I have seen it. (I haven’t liked that film which is not an issue here) but construction of ‘narrative’ is achieved nicely in the particular sequence you are talking about. He shows two places next to each other. But he never claims that it is Madikeri or it is jog. That is what I am trying to arrive at. There is a clear difference in creating a ‘real story’ and narrating a ‘real story’. And if you say that Danny did all this just to reach out to larger crowd, its nothing but popularity formula film!
3. About the 100$ bill in the film: Your examples of how people can be generous are ok. I have no issues in that. But what I wrote in the article is how it doesn’t work in the context it is shown. I am aware of those agents you are talking about. But I am talking about the entire context it self.
4. About the 5 star hotel called Taj: You have taken ’Bunty or Bubbly’ for an example. But again my friend you are confusing the ‘Reality’ and ‘Fiction’. ‘Slum Dog…’ claims that it’s a simulation of fiction. But Bunty of Bubly says it’s a make believe. When you define the game you are playing, the game played by that rule isn’t a problem. (I am not saying Bunty or Bubly is a great film) I will not continue this argument regarding the song sequence shooting in our films. Because again it’s the same thing. I would be repeating my self. If you want to understand it further, you can read article I have written in my blog about songs (www.abhaya.wordpress.com – ‘Indian films are nothing but song and dance’) that will address the problem you have with the fancy dress Ram.

I agree with you when you speak about illogical things about Kannada or Hindi films. Yes they are there. But we cant compare them with some other film just to get an excuse to avoid a creative, constructive criticism on any piece of art. We don’t discuss ‘Om Shanti Om’. But we do discuss ‘Slum Dog’ because it surely has good elements which can be discussed about. It is ‘cinema’. It is a ‘piece of art’ where as Om Shanti Om is just a ‘film’. So I am not discarding ‘Slum Dog’ as rubbish. But I am trying to initiate a different argument. Any piece of art can not escape a creative criticism. I have made a film my self and it has been criticized by people. Some liked it some didn’t. That doesn’t mean I am completely right or wrong nor are the people who discuss it.

I am glad you are so much interested in this subject. I am also glad someone at least took the pain to analyze my article and started a discussion. I hope I have given you adequate answers to the points raised by you. I appreciate your concern and enthusiasm.

Regards,
Abhaya Simha

This is Vinayak (III yr of B.Tech). well, I happened to read ur article on Slum dog millionaire movie and the defects in it. Ur arguments seem logical but the fact is that except one or two ur questions do not make any sense. You seem to be quite expert in the area as you are a journalist, but i guess i make ceratin logical points to u. let me go from point to point.

1) You say that Indian version of KBC or any other such type of shows are not live. Yes they might not be live shows. But they could be made in to live shows. There are many reality shows are happening today which are live. Probably all the game shows including KBC might have been pre telecasted in order to make it convinient for themselves and participants. But live show is not a hypothetical. so showing who wants to be a millionaire in movie as live is not hypothetical. When a cricket match can be shown live, why not a game show? And we can not guess that since KBC or any other game shows were not live, we can not make a game show live in future or can not show it as live in a movie. Danny Boyle might have taken the basic idea from KBC and with his creativity and other aspects, he has shown the game show as live. There is absolutely no sense in your arguments. If we just keep on following what others have done before, whats creativity then? Kannada films suffer because of same trend that they follow from movie to movie.

2) Your question regarding the language, well again i dont think the language is any problem. You say that ceratin characters speak hindi and some in indian english and european english. I guess all indian characters speak indian english and i dont find any british accent. Only foreign tourists are shown speaking in european accent. Now let me come to main point. I think Danny Boyle has shown all child characters speaking hindi. Well if he would have shown them speaking english, it is more illogical than what u think now. All adult characters speak english, the main reason why the movie is made in english is to reach out at masses. If the movie would have been made in hindi, probably that would have been hit only in india but not in entire world. And u say that how could it be possible for a call center guy to learn british accent. Let me remind u that JAMAL MALIK ( Dev patel) speaks british english in indian accent. Majority of indians do that. In Goa, even a panwala or massagers speak good english with no grammar mistakes. The skill is developed from the enviornment in which they work. I have read many time some children and adults have even learnt to send e- mails while working in cyber cafe (even when they dont know proper english, and I am sure in india, majority can speak basic sentences in english). You cant question that how could a working child can learn to e-mail.

If u have watched MUNGARU MALE, heroine’s house ( her place ) is some where near coorg. Ganesh and she come to JOG falls on bicycle. Can u believe that?. U know that it takes nearly 8-10 hours by bus to travel from coorg to shimogga. But we cant make this point to director because, the director’s intention might have been to showcase the beauty of JOG in a much different way than previous. Like that here, DANNY’s intention might have been to reach out to majority of people rather than only one nation.

3) you say that american couple can not give 100 dollars as tip. And also ur doubt regarding exchange of currency to indian rupees. If u have watched another oscar nominee from India in 1988 or so ” SALAAM BOMBAY “, u would get answer for urself. I remember once GANESH after his Mungaru male was a big hit and also he was famous before that because of his commedy show, an old kannada woman ( from abroad ) who got so much of motherly afffectionate for him, kept calling him to come to her and be her son and look after her entire property. In the way u think, this can not happen, am i right? Because how can any one give away entire property to some one whom she knew only by a television show or a movie. In metro cities and tourists places like Agra tourists pay the tip in dollars. There are certain agents or persons who pay some money for dollars and get those dollars exchanged to indian rupees legally thus making more profits to themselves. I will give u a small example: If 1 dollar may fetch nearly 50 rs, the agents may give only 20 rs or so and when the currency is exchanged, naturally those agents get much more. This is very common in Bombay or anywhere else in metros. So its absolutely illogical to raise questions regarding exchange of currency and 100 dollar tip.

4) And ur opinion regarding Taj mahal as a hotel, SALIM character getting a gun and appearance of a child dressed as RAM during communal clash also dont make much sense. I do agree to ur opnion that any one believing TAJ MAHAL as a hotel is illogical as it is a very popular monument. But if u have watched ABHISHEK BACHAN’s BUNTY AUR BUBLI, u will feel that Slum dog millionaire is better, because in that movie Abhishek and Rani cheat a billionaire saying that TAJ is for sale. Can u believe that? huh..! well rgarding appearance of RAM, if director would have shown a statue of RAM in a temple, then it would have been better rather than showing a child dressed as RAM. But again i ll give u a small example: In a any song sequence of any film, some part of shooting is done in one location with some dress, the other part and next one,,, so on,, migh be done with characters wearing some other costume and in a different country… we cant ask a question that how did characters change their costumes so early and how did they reach other country so fast..? can we..? no.. we need to understand the director’s intention that he wants to show the beauty of a location or beauty of costume etc They are realistic. here also, DANNY wanted to show how JAMAL and SALIM lost their mother and how they suffered due to communal clash.. thats all…!

So these are my opinions and i guess i have given logical answers to ur questions. And at last i will mention another situation to term the word illogical and to highlight its meaning. If u have watched film KRISHH, in that Prity zinta is giving birth to the chid after 2 yrs of Hrithik Roshan ( Rohit character ) left India to work with nasiruddin shah…! this is illogical as its against the nature.. NO Woman can give birth after 2 yrs of impreganating. So this is illogical. But the sequences in SLUM DOG MILLIONAIRE are never illogical as they depict director’s creativity.

Bye,
with regards,
VIN