Redefining India:
Watching between the frames of the Slumdog Millionaire
London, 28 January 2009. This afternoon I went to watch the Slumdog Millionaire – famous in the West, with 10 nominations for Oscar; and infamous in India, with a number of reported demonstrations. I wanted to see for myself what the point of contention was. Is it a conflict between how India defines itself and how the rest of the world does so? My decision to go to the movie was itself prompted by the comments that I heard from my English friends who had already seen it.
As I sat through the film, I could perceive a certain dynamics of the Aristotelian catharsis unravelling with me. May be a catharsis in reverse! First, a revulsion: this is not the complete picture of India! Surely, this is not what happens in my home village or in my district! Besides, how could a British producer portray India this way? Shame, and I am watching this cesspool seated amidst a bunch of British gentlemen! Among over 1000 films produced by the thriving film industry of India, there have been worst portrayals of poverty and misery of India. But when it is in English, produced by an outsider, and you watch it in London, this injures your Indian hubris.
Slowly, but surely, you can’t deny it. The sights and sounds, the congestion and chaos, the filth and frustrations – this is India! My India. Our India. Every time I have come home in the past 17 years, after a long haul of overnight flight, this is the India I wake up to. After all, the credits at the end of the movie acknowledge, “Based on Q and A, a novel by Vikas Swarup.” So the original story comes from an Indian diplomat! That makes it less repugnant.
Against the backdrop of the TV quiz, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” the non-linear narration smoothly weaves together the adventures of “the three musketeers” as they grow up in a hostile Indian urban milieu. But how could a slumdog win the quiz and become a millionaire? The police are forced to enquire. As Jamal apathetically narrates how his own life story and the questions in the quiz crisscrossed, the film attempts a definition of Indian-ness:
- Hero worship: The myriad of traditional mythical heroes are replaced by film stars and cricket players of today. The heroes thrive on the empty dreams of the incapacitated masses! They even challenge us to take reckless risks, including getting ourselves in real shit!
- Religions: They underpin the Indian ethos. They wake us up in the morning. But from time to time, they rage. They deprive our children, like Salim and Jamal, of their mother.
- Beggary: The Hindu religion has encouraged it in the name of dharma and sanyasa. The wealthy businessmen of the Vaishya castes could give vent to their guilt by feeding the shudhras who have fall out from their traditional jobs. It maintains the social status quo. It also gives a business opportunity for heartless gangsters like Maman.
- Prostitution: In many countries prostitution is maintained by the tourism industry. But in India, prostitution maintains our strong monogamist family structure. It has a function, acting as a valve preventing serial polygamy of the West and its traditional equivalent in Arabic and African societies. After the sensual adventures of the day, the Indian male will go back home. And the institution of marriage is generally safeguarded, thanks to the two million sex workers. Nevertheless, these workers are people with faces like Latika!
- Rich cultural heritage: We have our poets, the Taj Mahal, and the Mahatma, just to cite a few. But what we know is our survival for today. And it is the survival of the fittest!
- High rise buildings, Call-Centres, the mega TV shows: These are developments since the 1990’s. They camouflage the 250 million people who live below poverty line. They create a mirage among young people like Salim, “I am at the centre of the world!”
- Cricket? Oh, it was about to escape my list. One of the hang-overs of what is euphemistically called the British Raj. That is why the British call it, Raj (empire)! To us, it was colonialism and imperialism. The consequence? They are what they are, and we…? We have our slumdogs. And slums, are they not products of Industrial Revolution? They gave us modern urban life, but we never learnt to plan our cities. They gave us the railway, but after 60 years of independence our trains remain dirty and always over-crowded. So, we cannot blame them either. In any case, the fact that we are mere victims in a system that is largely defined by them, should not be brushed under the carpet. It is so easy to forget history. As I watched the Slumdog, I could not avoid thinking of the English classic, Oliver Twist! So, is this just another necessary evil in the process of ‘development’ as defined by the contemporary world-order?
- To conclude our definition of India, we add fate and karma. If a slumdog wins Rs. 20 million, it is because… (A) He cheated; (B) He was helped; (C) He is a genius; (D) It is written (read, fate or destiny!) Let us try to answer this using the rules of the quiz. You ask the British audience they will not know. You go for 50/50: now choose between (B) and (D). You use your life-line; call a friend. Fine, you call the protagonist Jamal himself. He knows it all, “I knew I’d find you in the end. It’s our destiny.” The borderline between sagacious equanimity and lazy resignation is very thin. This seems to be a global struggle, very well portrayed in hit novels and films including The Alchemist, and Forest Gump. As for India, we could make a case that the theory of Karma has contributed to accepting the colonial past and to be resigned at the face of the present struggles.
Yet, Indian-ness remains undefined. The list is incomplete. Alessandra Cassella, an Italian TV presenter, asks Vikas Swarup in an interview: are you not portraying a negative image of India? The India of Q and A seems so dangerous; so cruel to its children. The diplomat defends his motherland and the government that he serves. The ending of the story is important, he says. There is light at the end of the tunnel. In spite of so much poverty, India has achieved a lot. For instance, in the past two decades 100 million people have passed over to the lower middleclass level. India has done all this under the umbrella of democracy. This is the beauty of India. The process may be slow, but it is the sure path.
Fair enough. Yes, I do believe that there is going to be light at the end of the tunnel; not merely due to chance, but because of our choice.
P.S. A note to Danny Boyle:
You could have avoided the clock on the railway platform in your final dance sequence. It betrays your shooting schedule. Even the Indian slumdogs, grown up in a film-culture, may read it between the frames!