Representation of India in The Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog millionaire as a film, may appear to showcase everyday life for people living in Indian slums, but is a globalised representation of oriental culture, done so through a western film maker who effectively portrays an empathetic storyline filled with anguish and violence that ends in love and happiness, where “The characters are a selection of half-drawn stereotypes, barely sketched notions of criminals and slumdogs far removed from the complexities and heartbreaks of real life” (Amlani, 2009). Through a typical storyline of an underdog who eventually prevails and finds love, the utterly clichéd film unsurprisingly resonates with “western consumer values of monetary gain and the universal values of love” (n.a, 2015). This essay will argue that, through globalisation and an undeniable level of orientalism, the representation of the slum within this film is not only fabricated to enhance a journey, but also derogatory and a façade used to appeal to western audiences and gain accolades for its supposed representation of the real India. Further discussed is the fact that Slumdog Millionaire fails to showcase the true extent of urban poverty within the global south. The film not only took advantage of local representation, but can also be poverty porn, which uses a westernised theme that fails to encompass the depth of inequalities in the south.

Slumdog Millionaire depicts a problematic representation of India and its slums through cultural and national issues, partly since the film was made for the purpose of profit, and also because of a westernised approach towards the storyline that continually demonstrates a sense of orientalism. While the film attempts to highlight aspects of “child prostitution, gang violence and thematic explorations of poverty” (Chan, 2010) through scenes such as children being blinded and Jamal’s mother being beaten, western audiences then perceive this as an “authentic third world experience of poverty, squalor and repression” (Chan, 2010). This in turn is problematic as representation of India to the world is narrowed down to the concept of slums and a sense of inferiority, cementing the idea that the film is laced with orientalism. Another reason that the film should be critiqued is the realisation that the story was mainly produced and directed by Europeans, while the actors may have been local, the adaptation and cinematic experience was all completed by people who thought that they were conveying the real India. Further criticisms find that “Boyle conveniently packages misperceptions about India (and the East) that continue to support the dominant Western view of the subcontinent” (Chan, 2010). While Slumdog Millionaire does to an extent portray realistic aspects of India, one must also account for the culturally blended background music, the protagonist wearing western clothes in an attempt to fit in and succeed, and the clichéd ending of being with his love. Considering all the aforementioned aspects, it continues to become more apparent that this movie was made to support longstanding western viewpoints and aestheticize the slums of India, leading to a heavy increase in poverty tourism, but no real positive effect on the people who live their lives in the slums. By appealing to audiences in the global North, people are seen as empathetic towards those living in slums, yet there was little to no positive steps made to help those suffering daily.

The enormous success of the film can then be correlated with the fact that “The primary direction of both national and international interventions during the last twenty years has actually increased urban poverty and slums, increased exclusion and inequality, and weakened urban elites in their efforts to use cities as engines of growth” (Davis, 2004). By combining the life of a seemingly hopeless boy who lives in a slum, and showcasing a romanticised journey to wealth and love, Slumdog Millionaire fuels stereotypes and convincingly deepens the gap between Western ideologies and Eastern realities, thus displaying how large the presence of orientalism is within the movie, and how the film is problematic to a society that needs effective solutions to combat longstanding inequalities, not just Hollywood success.

While the film does showcase a glimpse of urban poverty and the presence of slums, there is still a plethora of underlying factors that the film fails to perpetuate throughout the storyline. Slums have steadily increased in size and numbers throughout the last two decades, and when it comes to international organisations tasked with finding solutions to this problem, the world bank is one of the first that comes to mind. While the World Bank may seem to boast numerous strategies, including slum upgrades, “The very market forces, in other words, that the world bank currently hails as the solutions to the third world urban housing crisis are the classical instigators of that same crisis” (Davis, 2007), meaning that attempting to upgrade the areas known as slums will not only prove extremely difficult due to the fact that upgrading requires temporary relocation, but also because it allows the continuous cycle of slum living to continue.

Past efforts have seemingly had only negative effects as seen through “In Delhi, planners complain bitterly about ‘slums within slums’ as squatters take over the small open spaces of the peripheral resettlement colonies into which the old urban poor were brutally removed in the mid-1970s” (Davis, 2004). Due to the enormous multitude of Slum areas within India and many other countries of the global South, upgrading those slums seems both inefficient and unobtainable. In continuation, NGOs also play a pivotal role regarding urban poverty, while their general focus is to aid the living crisis occurring, it is crucial to note that “with the major NGO’s captive to the agenda of international donors, and grassroots groups similarly dependent upon the international NGO’s” (Davis, 2007), there is a sense of cultural imperialism that continues to occur, impeding on the effectiveness and progress made to combat issues of inequalities throughout history. Another important point regarding NGO’s and their structure is that “NGO’s are inherently conservative. Staffed by retired civil servants at the top and social workers and housewives without roots in the slums” (Davis, 2007), implying that they in turn fail to provide practical solutions for those actually living in the slums. Progress may have been made throughout the years, but due to the current political landscape that in turn governs international aid and many NGO’s, there is a harsh notion that “Their (NGO’s) effort is to constantly divert people’s attention from the larger political evils of imperialism to merely local issues”ю

In conclusion, Slumdog Millionaire attempted to portray the real India, but was a globalised marketing attempt produced by Europeans to appeal to the global north through determination and love, it gives a narrow minded and western view of India, and can be seen as derogatory to those who live the reality. While the film only scratches the surface on the reality of urban poverty, this essay has attempted to highlight some the numerous problems regarding representation throughout the story, such as an orientalist mind-set from the filmmakers and aestheticized depiction of escaping the slums. Further argued was the notion that this films portrayal failed to showcase the impact that international organisations have on solutions regarding urban poverty, and that NGO’s are bounded by external stakeholders who have the ability to influence expenditure.