The Slumdogs Blog

After the success of the Oscar winning film “Slumdog Millionaire”, another film is shaping up from the same slum area of Mumbai's 'Dharavi'. The film 'Barah Aana' is to show not the poverty pornography like in 'Slumdog', but it has casted on a theme, the same Dharavi slum as a place of the working class, where peons, clerks,watchmen and more live together, their lives intertwining like they never do anywhere else. The young, Raja Menon is the writer and director of the film 'Barah Aana'. The film shows the narrow lanes of the slum and a community huddled together.

Barah Aana is a comedy about three friends from Dharavi, a driver played by Naseeruddin Shah, a watchman by Vijay Raaz and a waiter by Arjun Mathur. Raaz’s character, boisterous and mischievous, finds himself in deep soup and stumbles into a crime. He goads his friends to join him and soon all three find their lives spinning out of control.

The 97-minute movie, which will be released on March 20, has done the domestic festival circuit, travelling to Goa, Kerala and Pune, and has been invited for screening at the Museum of Modern Arts, NewYork, in June. The attention Slumdog got after winning Oscars might help this film in a good way. After all this is a film produced by an Indian.

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For the homeless the situation seems always unchanged. According to government surveys, about 65 million Indians, roughly a quarter of the urban population live in slums. The number of slum dwellers or homeless people are increasing day by day. Those who can not afford to build houses or don't have a piece of land, depend on slums as a place for dwelling. These areas where the slum dwellers occupy usually belongs to government or authorities. The time comes when these areas are to be utilized for some developmental purposes and these people are then forced to flee from this place. Such incidents are very common in every state, especially in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Culcutta, were majority of slum population live. The better portion of slum people in India are in Mumbai, where most poor people reaches in search of a livelihood.

Very recently, in Mumbai there was one such incident of demolition occured. The protesters were beaten by the cops in Mumbai (See news by The Morung Express). The protesters are most commonly the dwellers who have been living in this place for years. For them their years of hard work and belongings are destroyed in just a wink of the eye. Nothing will be done to reahabiliate these people from homelessness. Although promises on building new houses or apartments for these homeless are given, it was always been limited as just promises. With the success of Oscar winning film “Slumdog Millionaire”, the world attention has turned towards India. As the general elections fast approach,political leaders are sure expect on these slum areas with their unkept promises and offers.

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Curiosity about India paved the way for the success of the Oscar winning movie“Slumdog Millionaire”. It was said by none other but the author who wrote the novel “Q & A”, which formed the base for producing the film Slumdog.

Vikas Swarup, who is also India's deputy high commissioner to South Africa, found himself in the spotlight after British director Danny Boyle adapted his novel "Q&A" for the big screen. He even travelled around the world to promote his novel and the film. He says that behind the success of this film is because it is about India. Everyone around the world is anxious to know about India, he said."Slumdog Millionaire", a rags-to-riches drama about a Mumbai slum kid winning a TV game show, swept the Academy Awards last month, winning eight Oscars including best film.

He says, even those kids from the slums were able to stand along with the famous directors like Steven Spielberg and other famous Hollywood actors at the Kodak Theater, Los Angels. Now, Vikas Swarup finds himself recognized and his books sorted after at shopping malls. Eventhough Vikas didn't win any Oscar's, he feels proud like a Godfather to the final product.

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Increased wealth disparity and income inequality have led the issue of  homelessness into an alarming scale. While some people live in their palaces some even don’t have access to a shelter. People can't afford to pay rent for housing so that they are homeless. New census estimates that there are 13 million homeless people in India.Together with the people who are dependent on the one which is counted, it makes a huge section of India without an accommodation. While India claim of being a welfare state, these 13 million people still don't have any permanent roof over their head.

All major cities of India have huge number of homeless people. In Delhi alone 100,000 people are homeless. Though Delhi Government claims to offer 'Rain Basera' to these homeless, these could accommodate only 6,000, and that too these are open only during winter season and not  the rest of the year. It’s true that homeless people need shelter during winter more desperately than other seasons especially when it is in Delhi. But during Monsoon their situation becomes more pathetic. Many homeless die every year because of chilling cold. Their unclaimed bodies are deposed by NDMC and Delhi police without any sensitivity attached. Last year the Delhi police had collected 3,040 such unclaimed bodies. Now, it is an accepted data that every year around 3000 homeless dies in Delhi.

Homeless people sleeping on footpaths during winter in Delhi.

Itis said that that the housing problem arose after Industrial Revolution. Mostly the homelessness is an urban problem, while the problem of homeless in countryside are not apparently seen. People don’t have access to home for various reasons and poverty is one of them. People do migrate from poor regions to cities and here they don’t find any shelter. Most often they leave their ‘home’ and become homeless once they enter in cities.

The Indian Government had developed certain schemes for homeless, but most of these plans exists still on papers. In the year 1988-89 the government came up with a pioneer scheme to offer night-shelters to homeless. According to the government, the scheme was supposed to progress as per demand, but the scheme did not perform accordingly.This means that the States would put forward proposals, which would then be sanctioned by Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd.(HUDCO). To start any construction states have to come forward and that is not happening. Now, it is beyond anyone’s understanding who does have the real responsibility. But, for time being, it seems homeless people has the responsibility to look after themselves and they are now happy at least on roadsides.

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As the general election is fast approaching, the political parties in India have started to fight for the right to play the signature song “Jai Ho”for campaign rallies after the “Slumdog Millionaire” created a great wave, winning 8 Oscars. The ruling Congress party has bought the exclusive rights to play "Jai Ho," which translates as "Be Victorious," at their election rallies. The song, played on the closing dance sequence of the film, won Best Song at the Academy Awards.

See for more News by AP.

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As the applauds of the Oscar award ceases down, a feeling of indignity rises in the minds of many Indians. Was the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' any better than other well made Indian movies? Are Indian movies that bad to be nominated for Oscar? Why Indian movies never won an Oscar? Why 'A.R Rahman' s other great works in the Indian movies didn't get an Oscar nomination? Like this goes the murmuring and uproar among many Indians.

These questions are the ones that should be taken into serious consideration. Many of the Indian nationals feel like betrayed or insulted before the world.Some feel that showcasing poverty in the film, India is pictured as an under-belly nation, while some others say it has shown only the dirt and filth of the slums and not the real poverty. In reality the question, 'Why Indian movies are not getting the Oscar nomination? is one that should be seriously discussed among the Indian movie makers.This issue of indignity wouldn't have raised, if the British made Indian context movie had not won the Oscars. The pride of many Indians got hurt and they feel ashamed of having given a poverty pron picture of India to the westerners.

While this low budget movie has proved of getting record collections from the Europe and America, it's director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson never thought of the movie becoming a grant success. Armed with the Oscars and a load of unprecedented publicity, Slumdog is now getting the treatment of a star-driven, mainstream Hollywood film. The victory of 'Slumdog Millionaire' should send a huge message to Hollywood: Don't overlook the littleguy,' wrote Claudia Puig in USA Today. It was being commented when Warner Independent sold the distributing rights to Fox Searchlight, thinking that the movie will create a big loss for them.

Slumdog's Lessons for Hollywood by Arther J Pais

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The low-budget movie "Slumdog Millionaire" has not only drawn big crowds in the West, but also the movie has won eight Oscars, including the Academy awards for the Best Picture and the Best Director. The Best Music and Best Song awards went to India's musician A.R. Rahman, known as the Mozart of Madras. Half the world in Mumbai, the Garib Nagar crowd was particularly excited because several children from the area, including Rubina Ali, 9, and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, starred in "Slumdog Millionaire," playing the roles of "young Latika" and "young Salim" respectively.

After the well-deserved success of the well-made Slumdog movie, will the lives of poor children in Mumbai or in India improve? Can this extraordinary focus on child poverty translate in to positive actions to reduce poverty around the world? These are the most important questions on the minds of many after the euphoria in Los Angeles. The people in India have got different opinion towards the success of the movie. The ABC news has reported that people in the slum area are not at all happy and believes that nothing is going to make any change in their life. In fact the people in the slums are not happy with the use of 'Slumdog'. They conducted protests march in Mumbai against the movie.

Now Reality Tours have started targeting Mumbai Slums as a major place for Poverty Tourism in India. It is estimated that sales are up by about 25% since Slumdog Millionaire's release. Though the tourism industry was down after terrorist attacks in Mumbai, publicity surrounding the film has played a big role. The tours have come under criticism for exploiting poverty. But the organizers say that it is way to help poor in Mumbai. Now, the great success of movie is a fantastic opportunity for the director to set up a foundation for funding the poor children together with UNICEF.

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India, which is often described as peaceful, stable and prosperous country by the western media, remains home to the largest number of poor and hungry people in the world. About one-third of the world's poor population lives in India. According to World Bank, more than 450 million Indians exist on less than $1.25 a day. India has about 42% of the population living below the new international poverty line of $1.25 per day. The number of Indian poor also constitute 33% of the global poor, which is pegged at 1.4 billion people, according to a Times of India news report. More than 6 million of those desperately poor Indians live in Mumbai alone, representing about half the residents of the nation's financial capital.

There is widespread hunger and malnutrition in all parts of India. India ranks 66th on the 2008 Global Hunger Index of 88 countries .The first India State Hunger Index (Ishi) report in 2008 found that Madhya Pradesh had the most severe level of hunger in India, comparable to Chad and Ethiopia. Four states — Punjab, Kerala, Haryana and Assam — fell in the 'serious' category. "Affluent" Gujarat, 13th on the Indian list is below Haiti, ranked 69. The authors said India's poor performance was primarily due to its relatively high levels of child malnutrition and under-nourishment resulting from calorie deficient diets.

As critics complains about the usage of “Slumdog” in the Oscar Awards winning movie “Slumdog Millionaire”, and for showcasing India as a poverty stricken nation, fogets the real fact about India. The millionaire's and the billionaires neglects the poor and therefore the gap between the rich and the poor widens. So is the gap between two Indians. As 'Slumdog Millionaire' has drawn a global attention, those politicians and the rich who stumps away the poor should come down from their statuquo and be ready to pay attention to the poors needs.

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The Oscar Awards winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, has created a wave among the Westerners, who have watched the movie. Many of the Charitable Trusts in India have started to experience its feedback from people in Europe, asking for details of children whom they can sponsor. Yahoo News have reported a news showing a surge in Child's sponsorship.

While the child actors in the movie have impacted psychologically after returning to the same old condition of their tarpaulin houses in Mumbai. Now the things has completely changed with them. The children refuse to return to their old condition before the movie bagging eight Oscar awards(see..Yahoo News). Even though, the state government have promised to shift these children's families to new apartments, it seems to take much longer time. Since the plight of children have changed, their families in turn have also started put them in demand. Rubina Ali, who stars the child Lathika in the movie is put on a bargain by her own mother who left her early and the step-mother, who is now looking after her (Yahoo News).

Now the slum people have awaken to the light that the 'Slumdog Millionaire' have created. But there are comments that the people are becoming too greedy. When all of a sudden the poor people come across riches, their mentality changes and they will start to look upon them with great unrest. The movie is said to create some impact upon the lives of slum people in India. Especially, the children who are deprived of basic things in life. The westerners as well as Indians might contribute or will be ready to take up sponsorship for at least one child. So, the hope is awaking?

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Even though the families of these two children will be shifted to new houses once it is ready, the rest of the slum population will still remain behind the scenes. Will the government do anything for their development? This new move has formed the decision because 'Slumdog Millionaire' won Oscars or was drawn attention because it was nominated for Oscars. Time to do something effectively for these people by government has long been passed. Either these people should be given permanent place of residence or their rights should be protected.

The data shows that 60% of the population of Mumbai live in slums, which cover only 6% of the city's land. Slum growth rate in Mumbai is greater than the general urban rate. Why does this happen? Is it the population growth, poverty, unemployment or all of these? The government should look into these slums not only as tools for winning elections, but also must consider to give them better livelihood.

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