Millionaires of Mumbai

There is one scene in Slumdog Millionaire – perhaps only 3 or 4 seconds long – where a man on the street looks directly at the camera and utters “no filming.”

I’m not sure why the director kept the shot in the final cut, but the scene demonstrates just how real the visuals are. The movie was not filmed on sound stages or deliberately constructed sets. It was shot in Mumbai, and is an accurate depiction of a city I see everyday.

Some of the more affluent in India (who, outside of Americans, are probably the target audience) are angry at the dark portrayal of their city. Yet even one of the movie’s own Bollywood stars – Irrfan Khan – knows you can’t hide the truth.

“It's the reality. Why should it be swept under the carpet? ...Danny [Boyle the director] saw a good dramatic story on Mumbai. He came and shot that story.”

Most Bollywood movies set in Mumbai are staged. Streets are cleaned, people cordoned off, beggars sent away and camera angles conveniently block the ever-present slums. Big-budget movies show a city that never quite matches the truth.

Not so with Slumdog Millionaire. While the plotline obviously involves some characters in the city that are not always visible, elements like the beggar mafia and blinded orphans do exist. The realities of a city of 18 million are on display in raw form – both the evils of poverty and the inspiration of human ingenuity.

However, the movie is receiving mixed reviews in Mumbai for two reasons: socioeconomics and culture.

First, the few wealthy elite in Mumbai criticizing the movie don’t want to acknowledge, accept, deal with, or exhibit the poverty in their city.

Keep in mind that of the 18 million people that call Mumbai home, more than 10 million live in slums. Of the remaining 8 million, a fair amount live in dilapidated buildings that many Americans might mistakenly also classify as “slums.”

Given these figures, living in the city without encountering the mass of slums, poverty, and trash is impossible – unless one lives in a secluded neighborhood with Bollywood stars and real estate prices that exceed those in Manhattan.

The affluent minority criticizing Slumdog Millionaire appear to be vestiges of the caste system, angry that those “below” them are contaminating their country’s reputation. It’s the same reason that in Mumbai businesses, many employees won’t converse with the “help” who sweep their floors or the office “boys” that make photocopies and chai between running errands.

Yet somehow the mainstream media focuses on the criticism coming from a minor fraction of Mumbai society. Time Magazine managed to find – and quote – two:

“We see all this every day,” says Shikha Goyal, a Mumbai-based public relations executive who left halfway through the film. “You can't live in Mumbai without seeing children begging at traffic lights and passing by slums on your way to work. But I don't want to be reminded of that on a Saturday evening…”

“O.K., so there's filth and crime in India, but there's so much more too,” says Jaspreet Dua, a New Delhi–based business manager with an international luxury brand. “What they've shown is not reality.”

True, there is so much more to India – but what the movie shows is reality for a majority. A “public relations executive” (who didn’t even see the whole movie) and a “business manager with an international luxury brand” aren’t exactly representative of most Mumbaikars.

Most Indians are not living in secluded bubbles of cocktail parties and weekends in Dubai. And even among Mumbai’s affluent, there are many working to change the poverty in the city (sadly, not the movie's producers or director, though they seem to have suddenly changed their tune).

But the main reason that Slumdog Millionaire will fail at the Indian box office has less to do with politics and more to do with culture.

Bollywood seems to revolve around movies that transport audiences into another world. There aren’t many “hard looks” at serious social issues and few directors who “tackle” something controversial. These subjects are covered extensively by India’s vast print and television media.

Bollywood is about fantasy, song, dance, and escape.

Indians (of all classes and castes) flock to see Shahrukh Khan strutting to hard bass lines and swooning beautiful women in colorful love ballads. They revel in epics about the Mughal Empire with impeccable costumes or comedies that pit their favorite stars in wild situations.

Slumdog Millionaire was made with an American audience in mind.

Still, that won’t stop most Mumbaikars (especially the 10 million slumdwellers) from relating to the movie’s message: that intelligence and love isn’t the exclusive privilege of only the wealthy and privately educated.

But anyone from the slums already knows that. They are already aware of the ingenuity, entrepreneurial skills and family bonds that each of them relies on to thrive under conditions that would break most of us.

It’s Mumbai’s elite minority, aloof from the problems facing 55% of the city, that need to hear the movie’s message. Unfortunately, they’re in no mood to have their Saturday evenings ruined by a dose of reality.

Wil Robinson
International Political Will