Seriously?
It is an exploitation film in that it exploits historically bad conditions in India while ignoring what good India has undergone.
We are bombarded with images of people dying, religious violence, horrible poverty, child abuse, etc. in the first half of this movie, and all of this weight (which is largely new to audiances, as most people don't watch the news, foreign films, haven't been to India, etc.) is placed on the shoulders of these little kids. And through all of this bad stuff, we are meant to feel bad for them. And when they do find success in the end, we feel extra-happy for them because of what they have "been through."
This is just one part of India, though, and the director wants us to believe that this is the "real India," that this is what it would be like for everyone. At the time these kids were growing up, India has some of the best education programs in the world, most benevolent aid and care organizations for the lower class, etc. Crime and business corruption rates in India have historically been much lower than a lot of comparable developing economies. But this movie covers none of that!
This is not my original argument, but I heard it elsewhere and it's good: If one were to make a movie about kids roughing it in the Aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina, with a sugar-coated lovestory at the end, would an American audiance accept it as a genuine film about the American struggle? No, not at all. I know the countries aren't exactly the same, but the point is that this movie is trying lead the audiance into believing that India was this bad for everyone, when the reality is that it was not.
It compiles all of the ills of Indian culture into one compact story, complete and ready for the uninformed and unknowledgable Western audiances. Imagine if this was done in America - a movie made (somehow) about gangbangers, teenage mothers, drug addicts, racial violence, religious hatred, etc. with one or two 'good kids' somewhere in the middle, and it was passed off to the rest of the world as a movie about "America." No! Well that's what this movie is doing to India, and it's appalling and offensive to Indians!
It wants its social message (that of, I guess, love is there for those who perservere) to be reinforced by ultra-realism, but it picks and chooses from Indian history for the realism it presents. And in doing this, it makes India not look like a developing economy with great potential, but a land of morally good poor people, but that anyone who has money is corrupt and underhanded.
It is also exploitative in its depiction of the main guy as a call center employee. You know, because isn't that the only way to be successful in India these days, err, to handle calls about Westerners' technology?!
This movie makes no attention to detail, leaving those who are bothered by inaccuracies, well, bothered!
- The bad guys have no problem finding the girl at the trainstation when she flees at first, but not a single person in all of Mumbai recognizes the kid who just won Millionare, standing at te same station a short while after his victory? Hmmm.
- Local police, local gangsters and kids from the slums all speak English, haphazardly interwoven with their Hindi? Ya, okay....
- Call centers like that do not keep records of mobile phone listings.
This movie is pro-American/anti-Indian in a very sly way.
In "American culture," it is supported that the hard worker, who comes from a very humble background can make it. In contrast, it is made to appear that Indian culture goes to any extreme to prevent genuine, hard workers from rising to the top. And only through a trick of the system was this kid able to break through and have American-style success and love. To what extent American and Indian cultures differ in this regard is a very real political topic, but again one that is considered so crudely in this movie that it makes it all appear incredibly ignorant of what it means to be a successful Indian.
It seems like the only people who DON'T like this movie are Indians and Indian nationals. I've seen several reviews (on the television and online) of Indians ripping this thing to shreds, being embarrassed by it, etc. I thought these things while seeing the movie, but it was solidified in my mind as I read such reviews.
It's a very generic 'foreign view of India' - from a foreign director, made for a Western Audiance, what more might one expect than an overbudgeted, overhyped and practically unbelievable piece of exploitation?
Okay, so all of this aside, the kids are cute and it makes us feel good. I'm sorry, but I cannot simply "feel good" from something I know to be so inconsistent, inaccurate and offensive to Indians.
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