How will Slumdog Millionaire play in India?
Slumdog Millionaire won the Golden Globe for Best Drama this past Sunday, presaging a strong run for the Best Picture Oscar — provided it can deal with the inevitable blowback. And there will be blowback. Without giving anything away, the movie is undeniably the feel-good flick of the year. The love story at its core, however, is ...
Slumdog Millionaire won the Golden Globe for Best Drama this past Sunday, presaging a strong run for the Best Picture Oscar -- provided it can deal with the inevitable blowback. And there will be blowback.
Slumdog Millionaire won the Golden Globe for Best Drama this past Sunday, presaging a strong run for the Best Picture Oscar — provided it can deal with the inevitable blowback. And there will be blowback.
Without giving anything away, the movie is undeniably the feel-good flick of the year. The love story at its core, however, is tissue-thin. Dev Patel really does deserve an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor, because he manages to give his character’s motivations far more emotional longing than the story justifies.
What I’m very curious about, however, is how the film will play in India. The movie has yet to be released on the subcontinent. According to the Associated Press, the film will open there on January 23rd. The story also explains why it might not play too well in India:
[S]cenes of Mumbai’s filthy vast slums have drawn criticism from some viewers. Indian poverty is a delicate issue here, particularly when it is raised by outsiders [Danny Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire, is British-DD]. While India has gone through spectacular economic growth over the past decade, about 400 million people — more than the entire population of the United States — are believed to live on less than $1 a day.
This is serious — if Indians pan the movie, its shot at an Oscar is… er… shot.
Still, I suspect that the Dickensian fable will play well in the country where it is set. One criticism of the movie is that it paints the slums of Mumbai as too colorful and sanitized.
Readers who have seen the movie: does it deserve the Best Picture Oscar?
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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