tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post6972421157233232181..comments2024-03-17T03:17:43.229-04:00Comments on David Anthony Durham: SlumdogDavid Anthony Durhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13885922955551669016noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-44709931504154747782009-03-15T12:11:00.000-04:002009-03-15T12:11:00.000-04:00Uman,Ah, okay... That makes it much clearer.Uman,<BR/><BR/>Ah, okay... That makes it much clearer.David Anthony Durhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885922955551669016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-30106436107483966012009-03-14T21:03:00.000-04:002009-03-14T21:03:00.000-04:00I misspoke, David. I should have said Bollywood fi...I misspoke, David. I should have said <I>Bollywood</I> films don't help. India once had a valid alternative cinema, one that explored social issues. It's largely disappeared, or perhaps used Calvin's transmogrifier and resurfaced in regional cinema, and television. The bulk of Bollywood films are song and dance numbers.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00018627183403149149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-16459496590179905342009-03-06T12:08:00.000-05:002009-03-06T12:08:00.000-05:00Uman,Thanks for adding your perspective. It all ma...Uman,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for adding your perspective. It all makes sense and adds to my understanding of this issue. Much appreciated.<BR/><BR/>I don't know if I'd say "films don't help", though. We're talking because of this film. I've had a lot to think on and chew over because of this film. I understand a few more things because of this film. Okay, that is small next to the on the ground realities faced by millions. No, a film is no easy fix there. <BR/><BR/>But in a world as large as ours the effects of any one person's efforts are almost always minuscule. I bet that many people who've seen this film - whether they liked it or not, whether they are Indian or not - have spent some of their time and energy responding to it, thinking about it. That, to me, is a help, even if it's tiny in comparison to the problem. <BR/><BR/>And who can say that a film watcher now won't be an active influence in the world ten or twenty or thirty years from now?<BR/><BR/>-David.David Anthony Durhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885922955551669016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-74405767772389812222009-03-05T10:17:00.000-05:002009-03-05T10:17:00.000-05:00Stephe: excellent point regarding the laundry. I w...Stephe: excellent point regarding the laundry. I was born in India, but grew up here. I have traveled through India dozens of times. Slumdog is faithful to a small part of the complex Indian reality.<BR/><BR/>But not all. And I think that's the problem that many Indian commentators have. What worries many Indians is that they feel they will be judged by this film, given that most Americans know so little about India. <BR/>While I think most Americans understand that Slumdog is a movie, my wife's co-worker told her that after seeing Slumdog, she had no wish to go to India. I wonder what she thinks of Boston after seeing the Departed. Anyway, her loss. My American friends who've been to India tell me that the first time is the hard part, a shock to the senses. If you go back again, then you're taken by the place. <BR/><BR/>Indians don't experience that shock. From an early age, a middle-class Indian has to learn the art of selective sight. You really don't see the ragpickers, the poverty that lurks at the edges. As wealth trickles down, it's even harder to see today than 20 years ago. But it's out there. And unlike America, where a suburban American can easily pretend that Camden, NJ doesn't exist, in India, the different social milieu are intertwined deeply. You could talk to your housecleaner, or the chai wallah, or the auto driver for the details. Some do, many don't. Slumdog doesn't capture the Indians who do care about the other 80%: the teacher who volunteers with the NGO to teach in the slums, the doctors who provide free medical care, etc. We don't see that India in Slumdog. In fact, most of the Indians in Slumdog are very cruel to each other. What I see in India is less active cruelty, but more indifference. Oftentimes, mind-numbing, bureaucratic indifference.<BR/><BR/>Films don't help. India is hurtling doubletime into the 21st century (what England and America experienced in leisure-like realtime). So Bollywood caters to the aspirations of the people, not their conscience or even their curiosity. Slumdog gets it right: India won't care for a slumdog, but it will for a slumdog millionaire.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00018627183403149149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-61831239280084596482009-02-27T13:37:00.000-05:002009-02-27T13:37:00.000-05:00Good thoughts. Thanks for them.Good thoughts. Thanks for them.David Anthony Durhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885922955551669016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-54922364282995214012009-02-26T22:27:00.000-05:002009-02-26T22:27:00.000-05:00That's quite a spectrum of opinion in those links ...That's quite a spectrum of opinion in those links you provided, David. And it's not surprising that the <B>children</B> saw the utter beauty in their life portrayed for the world, the good, the bad, and painful parts, and embraced it, rather than the adults who were uncomfortable. <BR/><BR/>Something profound happens to us when we grow up: In losing our innocence, we become almost obsessed with the <I>appearance</I> of our laundry instead of whether or not it is actually clean. No one wants to look bad in front of others, but shouldn't we be more concerned about the truth of something rather than it being on the table?<BR/><BR/>I think the movie is wonderful. Parts of it hurt my heart. I also have enough common sense to know that other sections of India are very different, and that there are reasons and circumstances concerning the many faces of India that I could never understand just by seeing one movie. Or two.<BR/><BR/>Just some thoughts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-84728938083884354712009-02-25T23:55:00.000-05:002009-02-25T23:55:00.000-05:00I hear you. I was referring specifically to the In...I hear you. I was referring specifically to the Indian setting really.<BR/><BR/>Funning thing about Trainspotting. I saw that movie just before I moved to Scotland. At the time it was getting a lot of flack for "glamorizing" heroin addiction. I'm not sure that the folks saying that actually saw the movie...<BR/><BR/>Or, maybe I'm wrong. Even after it I was still pretty keen to get across and walk the night streets of Edinburgh. Fateful decision, that...David Anthony Durhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885922955551669016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-9960178966500625202009-02-25T03:42:00.000-05:002009-02-25T03:42:00.000-05:00I haven't seen Trainspotting or 28 Days After (or ...I haven't seen Trainspotting or 28 Days After (or whatever it's called), although I understand they are both by Boyle -- but certainly he tends to focus on the grim and gritty, so it's not like that element is a departure for him as a filmmaker.<BR/><BR/>I don't know about my spouse being reasonable. HE sure seems to think he is!Kate Elliotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15371702691264111285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-72978643865521771982009-02-24T13:22:00.000-05:002009-02-24T13:22:00.000-05:00Your spouse sounds terribly reasonable. ;)Actually...Your spouse sounds terribly reasonable. ;)<BR/><BR/>Actually, you make a good point. I didn't have that reaction myself, but it sounds like you also have some films to reference as comparisons that I don't. <BR/><BR/>I might say this from Danny Boyle's side... Perhaps the "greatest hits" feel had to do with the likely fact that he only had one shot at this unlikely topic, and would likely only make one movie about India. I can imagine in that case I would want to put as much on film as possible, which might mean coming away with a survey of a variety of manifestation of Indian poverty, as opposed to a clear focus on a smaller sliver.David Anthony Durhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885922955551669016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-21873162210974379602009-02-24T03:20:00.000-05:002009-02-24T03:20:00.000-05:00Heh, re: the "pride" in seeing poverty first hand....Heh, re: the "pride" in seeing poverty first hand. I fear I may, um, felt that also once or twice in my time.<BR/><BR/>I've been thinking about what bothered me with Slumdog (which I otherwise really enjoyed). It wasn't the depiction of poverty per se (I thought he did a good job of capturing elements of a life that far far far too many people in this world lead on a day to day basis).<BR/><BR/>I think it may have been that there was almost a greatest hits feel to it. So forex and offhand, Chandni Bar is about the dancing girls bars and therefore prostitution. Satya is about a naive village lad getting caught up in the criminal underworld in the big city.<BR/><BR/>Whereas with Slumdog we went right down through the harrowing list to the point where maybe I began to feel that the director and writer were trying to hit all the possible horrific things and that maybe it was too much.<BR/><BR/>However, I hasten to add that my spouse agrees with your view.Kate Elliotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15371702691264111285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-50021658046242518052009-02-23T15:06:00.000-05:002009-02-23T15:06:00.000-05:00Interesting. I can understand what you mean by "po...Interesting. I can understand what you mean by "poverty porn", but I can't say I felt that at play while watching. The poverty was so horrific - and the lives of the children living in it so harrowing - that I found no voyeuristic... um, pleasure or fascination in it.<BR/><BR/>But I do know what you mean. I certainly recall visiting my dad's native Trinidad or backpacking in Central America, coming home with tales of poverty that, yes, I took some form of pride in saying I'd seen first hand... I didn't feel that during this film, though.David Anthony Durhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885922955551669016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-64936655655276658122009-02-23T02:43:00.000-05:002009-02-23T02:43:00.000-05:00I wasn't watching the Oscars, but I would have bee...I wasn't watching the Oscars, but I would have been delighted to see the entire cast go up. (I haven't seen any of the other nominated films, only Slumdog, and that only a few days ago.)<BR/><BR/>I thought Slumdog was a well made film for exactly the reasons you cite (why, we must both be writers!).<BR/><BR/>I had some discomfort at the "poverty porn" aspects of it--I've seen other Indian films set in the slums or in the criminal underworld, and they seemed to have a different relationship to the poverty and underworld (it didn't seem as voyueristic?), but nothing I could specifically point to. <BR/><BR/>Otoh, maybe it's because so much of the film focuses on children that it might have seemed more exploitative. And my spouse did not agree with me on this point, anyway. He had not problem with any of it.<BR/><BR/>So, thanks for the links to some Indian response to the film. That was useful to read.Kate Elliotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15371702691264111285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12158536.post-44276248029833443772009-02-23T00:28:00.000-05:002009-02-23T00:28:00.000-05:00Can I be the first to comment on my own post? Sure...Can I be the first to comment on my own post? Sure, why not? <BR/><BR/>Slumdog just won best picture. I'm not sure what you thought about it, but I loved them having the entire cast (or as many as possible) go up on the stage. <BR/><BR/>We need more of this sort of thing, folks. More of it.<BR/><BR/>-David.David Anthony Durhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885922955551669016noreply@blogger.com