Term Paper on "Slumdog Millionaire the 2008 British"

Term Paper 7 pages (2156 words) Sources: 7

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Projections of Western Self onto the Indian canvas in Slumdog Millionaire reflect the same type of pattern evident in Sophia Coppola's film Lost in Translation. Lost in Translation uses Tokyo instead of Mumbai to depict the postmodern encounters between Selves and Others. In a globalized society, two American expatriates meet and engage in a mutually self-absorbing and narcissistic journey through Tokyo. Tokyo seems at once completely exotic and foreign, and also utterly mundane. Critics have accused Coppola of playing into "Western Orientalism" patterns (Iwabuchi 544). Others have simply pointed out that "the film depicts ordinary urban scenes in neither an idealized nor a degrading manner," (Iwabuchi 544). The latter point-of-view assumes that Tokyo is a global city. That is, Tokyo has gone beyond being a Japanese city and has become a city that belongs to a new globalized society in which Americans, British, and anyone else who chooses to can come, make a mark, and take something away. Mumbai has not yet reached the level of global city as Tokyo has. However, Slumdog Millionaire suggests that indeed India is poised for globalization. The globalization is a bilateral, or multilateral, process in which each culture informs every other. The West no longer controls the discourse of globalization. The West is as much a receptor as a projector; and the West is also an Other.

A Marxist perspective offers further insight into the Western self-Indian other dynamic in Slumdog Millionaire. A focal point of the movie is the masses of disenfranchised Indians dwelling in the slums. These are Indians from different backgrounds, many of whom speak different languages and practice different religions. Their core similarity is a shared nationality, but more importantly, a shared social class status. Latika's character adds the necessary gender dimension to the film. Her marriage to Salim clearly represents a stereotype of Indian misogyny. Beneath that though, Boyle does depict the grim reality of India's brand of patriarchy. Unfortunately, Boyle forgets to allow Latika to be her own hero. She does not liberate herself; she needs her knight in shining armor to rescue her, and he does.

Furthermore, the way the quiz show host treats Jamal shows how entrenched status dynamics are in Indian but also in Western societies. Even as the quiz show host represents the internalization of Western values in an Indian society, he also represents the antithesis of Jamal's heroism. He is corrupt, yet he is the one who asks the important questions. The quiz show host represents the old values of entitlement based on social class status, which are irrelevant in Western society.

Slumdog Millionaire is more than just a projection of Western values on Indian culture, although there is some residue of that dynamic in Boyle's movie. The film represents a transition toward an idealized global society that "should" be occurring worldwide. There is something disturbing about Jamal's story, and that is the fact that it insults the majority of India's one billion people who can never and will never work in a call center, let alone win a million rupees on a quiz show. It is implied that all Indians should, however, believe that this model might work for them. With the colonizer's gaze, Boyle seems to want desperately to wave a magic wand and make all of India's problems disappear so that everyone can live happily ever after. It takes a Western filmmaker to address the life of a slum boy, and depict his slow and steady self-liberation. Jamal liberates himself in spite of Indian society, not because of Indian society.

Works Cited

Appadurai, Arjun. "Here and Now" In Modernity at Large.

Boyle, Danny. Slumdog Millionaire.

During, Simon. "Introduction."

Iwabuchi, Koichi. "Lost in TransNation: Tokyo and the Urban Imaginary in the Era of Globalization," Inter-Asia Cultural… READ MORE

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