Saturday, June 6, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire: What's in the Slum+Dog?

I was just stumbling various sites and just tripped to a forum. The discussion there just stunned me. The discussion was going around the famous Academy winner 'Slumdog Millionaire'. We all know that there are so many controversies arose behind the name of the movie as "Slumdog Millionaire". Even the heat reached upto Danny Boyle also. One of the question raised about the movie is that the movie should have been names as 'Slumkid Millionaire'. Reason: 'Slumdog Millionaire' is sarcastic pricking all the slum people.But I don't see any personal slander in the name of the movie. Moreover it would hardly have removed a bukcet from the ocean had the movie named as "Slumkid Millionaire".
As per Boyle, the 'Slumdog' was named after the word 'Underdog' and we all well know the meaning as "Unsuccessfull". Since the protagonist hails from the Slums of Mumbai so the suffix 'under' was changed to 'Slum' and hence 'Slumdog'. It has nothing to do with canines and consider it calling would be utter absurd.
Moreover, don't we have movies from bollywood and that too of our famous Stars depicting the Indian slums? Bollywood hardly face any controversy over a movie shooted in the slums. The hero's childhood of maximum movies of late 70s or early 80s depicts his pauperism and then his heydays. The same has been shown in the 'Slumdog Millionaire' with the only difference in the directing team.So, no matters it's a 'Slumdog Millionaire' depicting Mumbai Slums or 'Muqaddar ka Sikandar' depicting impoverishment . The harsh reality would be there. The fault is not with the names but with our mind sets which assimilate the essence the other way around.
Also, the ideas that have brought the movie aloft all out of the contemporary film stack is just amazing. Many people critisize the movie name 'Slumdog..'.I agree that people just add words 'Slum + dog' but this opinion wouldn't have raised the popularity for the film. We all well know that for everything in this world different people have different views. But it is the tipping point of the opinions which adds success. If we go through the main idea of the film, it's not about one being born in Slums, working as a tea boy and being a millionaire. But, it's is all about the destiny and the foremost that how we grasp knowledge from various happening and occurences taking place diurnally around us in our ambience. It was 'Jamal Khan' who noticed 'Sameul Colt' from the dialogues of his brother and not the Police Inspector who had used a revolver for his long stint.
So, again, people should learn from the movie that being a Slumdog( Jamal Khan) is not as bad as being a billionaire( role acted by Anil Kapoor or the producer of the show) to conduct a game show without knowing that the questions they are going to ask in their game are as familiar to the contestant as 'Taj Mahal' to an Indian. All those who take the name of the movie as defaming, try to look at the things, the way they are made to be and not the way you see them.

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