Truthdig - Arts and Culture - ‘Slumdog Millionaire’: The Tour

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‘Slumdog Millionaire’: The Tour

altfg.com

Poverty porn?: “Slumdog Millionaire” has attracted notice, both to the film itself and to its backdrop in Mumbai.

As “Slumdog Millionaire” continues to rack up critical accolades (not to mention awards-season promotional blitzes), the film has also drawn crowds to its setting in the slums of Mumbai, India. But does this kind of attention represent a welcome boon for tourism or a form of exploitation—“poverty porn”—for a city still recovering from last November’s terrorist attacks?

USA Today:

The movie’s recent premiere in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) sparked complaints among some of Dharavi’s estimated 1 million residents, who live and work in an area smaller than New York’s Central Park. But it also has boosted business for Reality Tours and Travel, which leads eight to 15 tourists a day on guided tours of the slum.

Reality Tours co-founder Chris Way estimates that sales are up by about 25% since Slumdog Millionaire’s release. Though he credits some of the increase to a gradual rebound in tourism after terrorist attacks in Mumbai killed more than 170 people in November, publicity surrounding the film has played a big role.

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TAGS: academy awards film industry india mumbai oscars poverty porn slumdog millionaire terrorism tourism

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By jigarhajari, March 30 at 1:40 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

i want to more iformation about this movei culture

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By Glenn, February 27 at 3:49 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

What BS. i also saw that no one made any money fro that film

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By KDelphi, February 23 at 5:23 am #

It even got “best sound effects”...the kids were there, at least. No announcement of royalties

Neo-liberals love this crap because it makes them think that they “feel their pain”.

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By Sab, February 23 at 1:45 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

“Poverty Porn” is the perfect way of describing the apeal this movie has in America. Looking at disgusting, shit-filled sewer these people are surviving in is such a great way to make us feel so much superior.. This is a perfect reflection of the pervert psychie of American Liberalism. There are so many good movies made in India but then why this movie is attracting all the attention?

Oh these third world people with their un-civilized ways.. look how cruel and backward they are.. and look how civilized and cultured WE are.. let’s give these human scums as many Oscars as possible to celebrate their ugliness in this clean, civilzed western world of ours..

hell, let’s go and check out these slums on our next vacation.. I am so sick of same boring Paris and London every year.. I need something more exciting.. exoctic vacation.. man.. I am already getting a hard on… What a wonderful movie..

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By WriterOnTheStorm, February 21 at 11:13 pm #

Like “City Of God” before it, Slumdog relies on a new kind of third-world hokum. Of course, the love-conquers-all story is a fairy tale, but so is its characterization of the depravity of the Mombai underclass, and the lawlessness of the police. This is not the romanticized Dickensian world of the Artful Dodger. Just a grimy, pedestrian scrim, void of meaning and metaphorical dimension - a drab rat’s maze through which our would-be lovers scurry and huddle for the viewer’s amusement. In the end, it’s the film’s upbeat M.I.A.-meets-Bhangra soundtrack that does most of the hard work of clueing us in to the film’s aspirations as a fairly straightforward curry-flavored pop fantasy.

Apparently, we are extremely susceptible to these jejune depictions of strange and exotic lands. Just look how eagerly we bought into the neocon tableau vivant of Iraq and Iran as the wellspring of all things evil. No doubt it is the reptilian fear of the “other” at work here.

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By KDelphi, February 21 at 2:59 am #

I saw—somewhere on MSM—that these kids’ families havent seen a penny of the $100 million that the film had made. What bullshit.

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By Patrick, February 20 at 6:58 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

what attacks?
where is the SOBER, INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION?

WHY WERE HIGH LEVEL POLICE VICTIMIZED?

???????
FALSE FLAG TERROR YET AGAIN
4/19/
9/11
7/7

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