An Indian teenager who grew up in the slums of Mumbai becomes a contestant on a television game show and just happens to know all the correct answers. He is arrested on suspicion of cheating after the show closes for the night, with only one question remaining to be answered. After being brutally interrogated by the authorities, memories from his past are shown explaining how he knows the answers. He is finally able to return to the show the next night to go for the top prize: 20 million rupees. There is tremendous anticipation as he must remember the answer to one last question… This is the main plot of Slumdog Millionaire, a film that socially impacted India and the rest of the world. The film drew controversy over what was really being portrayed, and whether it accurately showed the modern culture of India.
Directed by Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire romanced audiences in 2009 with its dramatic storyline, Bollywood stylization, and inspirational “love conquers all” attitude. The main character Jamal rises above his dangerous past with the help of his brother, Salim, and childhood love, Latika. Together, they become ensnared in dangerous the dangerous grasps of Mumbai gangs, overcrowded orphanages, and possessive con artists. On the surface, this film can be assumed completely fictionalized because of the circumstances Jamal has to overcome. After researching some of the issues touched on throughout the film, it became obvious that India has some seriously troubling economic and social problems.
The problem facing India today that was found to be most disturbing is the intentional mutilation of children. In the film, Jamal and Salim are made orphans after a chaotic attack on their neighborhood kills their mother. Taking her last command, the boys run away to escape being slaughtered themselves. After a few days of living on the street, a group of older men appear to rescue the boys out of this poverty and bring them to a compound where several other children await them. The boys are given food and shelter, but the men seem to be up to something suspicious. This becomes apparent to the audience in one gruesome scene where one boy is sedated before being blinded by one of the men pouring acid over the child’s eyes. Jamal is set to be next in line, but he narrowly escapes and runs away with his brother. In a later scene, Jamal meets the blinded boy again on the street begging for money. The older men are using these children as begging props in order to gain the sympathy of passers-by and tourists. This occurs more often than most would think in real life today.
Mumbai is now India’s largest city, home to more than 20 million people. With overcrowding and a high crime rate, it is easy enough for children to become lost or stolen in the chaos. Unfortunately, the majority of these missing children fall into the wrong hands. Andrew Malone, a reporter in the UK, traveled to India to investigate the child beggar system. He was sure that it would take time and work to find children who resembled the beggars in the film. “Yet the truth, as I discovered during a chilling week-long investigation, is more disturbing than anything dreamt up by the creators of Slumdog Millionaire.”
It was not hard for Malone to find disfigured beggar children. However, finding one that would speak out and share his or her story was a difficult task. Malone finally found a young boy, Aamir, who was willing to share his story. Aamir fled to Mumbai after running away from an abusive father at the age of twelve. Within minutes of first arriving at the Victoria Station, the city’s main train terminal, he was approached by couple who gave him food. They told the boy they would take him to start a better life. Aamir said to Malone, “I thought they were maybe social workers or religious people.” Aamir’s food had been drugged. The couple took the drowsy boy to Mumbai’s municipal hospital, where a doctor was paid to amputate one of Aamir’s healthy legs. His leg was severed mid-calf, leaving him without a foot.
Most intentionally disfigured children have their arms or legs chopped off, and others have been blinded. The children with the worst injuries tend to make the most money- up to 10 Euros a day. This is a fortune in a country where the average monthly wage is less than 100 Euros (Malone). However, these children do not keep their earnings. The gang masters collect the money at the end of each day. If the children do not come back with enough expected money, they are beaten and tortured. So why don’t the children simply not return to the gang master? Most of these beggar children are addicted to solvents, alcohol, and charras (a powerful Afghan hash, often laced with opium), supplied by the gang master in order to keep the children returning. Another child beggar Malone spoke to said, “It helps us forget where we are,” after being asked about the drugs. He had his left arm removed and constantly sucks on a bag filled with glue. The boy, Tufhaar, was only nine when Malone spoke to him.
These crippled children flock to every intersection and tourist attraction. Many children are terrified of speaking out. This code of silence is understandable. “The gang members hold you down and cut out your tongue if they think you have informed,” says Flintoff, 18, a reformed local Indian gangster. Flintoff left the gang because he felt uneasy about the mistreatment of children. He says, “ I will steal every now and again, and sell drugs- but I keep away from the beggar mafia. These men are not human.” Not all “disappeared” children are disfigured or turned into beggars by these gangs. According to human rights groups, some are forced into child pornography or used as sex slaves. Others are killed and their organs are sold to wealthy Indians (Malone). Some are employed by the gangs to sell drugs. One boy Malone spoke to even offered to sell him cocaine and heroin. Slumdog Millionaire hints towards these possible outcomes for the children, but does not explicitly say so.
This seems so deplorable that it is hard to imagine it is still happening in such large numbers in this day and age. How are these children being helped? After the plight of the beggar children was thrust into the international spotlight, people took notice and decided to take action. Indian journalists decided to go undercover to see if the issue of child amputation was really as widespread as was shown in the film. Most doctor’s approached to cut off children’s healthy limbs agreed to cooperate for only 100 Euros. It was quickly found that complaints to the police are pointless. The beggar mafia bribes the corrupt officers, ensuring that no legal action will be taken. Swami Agnivesh, a child-rights activist, says: “There is collusion between the lawmakers and lawbreakers.” Because of this, people have to take action into their own hands. Several charities and advocacy groups have sprung up for this cause. Churches have set up refuge homes for these children to escape and be weaned off drugs. Other groups have started programs to shelter the children, as well. Fortunately, Aamir is one of the lucky children to have been rescued by a charity before having to beg or become addicted to drugs. The charity found him at the municipal hospital. A semi-sweet ending, as Aamir’s life will still be drastically different after having his arm unnecessarily removed.
How well is a foreign filmmaker portraying an unfamiliar culture? “It’s a white man’s imagined India,” said Shyamal Sengupta, a film professor at the Whistiling Woods International Institute in Mumbai. After Slumdog Millionaire gained widespread recognition, Indian locals and officials felt angry about what they deemed misrepresentation. “Branded as ‘poverty porn’ by some Indian critics, the film has caused controversy in a country that wants to promote itself as a modern economic super-power.” Indian police and politicians accuse Boyle’s film of painting an outdated portrait. “They are making out India is a Third World, dirty underbelly, developing nation,” says Amitah Bachchan, one of the country’s leading film stars and a powerfully patriotic voice (Malone). However, we know that many of India’s important roles are being bribed to look the other way. Nobody could possibly be in that much denial. Boyle chose Mumbai because it was an ideal backdrop. The crowded city has dangerous slums alongside upscale shops and restaurants. The diverse energy is what made the film so complex and fascinating to watch. Boyle claims he did not tamper with anything unnecessarily, that he did not want to be dishonest in representing India. He tried to make the film feel authentic by putting approximately 20% of the movie’s dialogue in Hindi (IMDB) and including real footage of Indian locals interacting with the camera.
There was controversy over the payment to the child actors actually being paid at all. The gossip going around was that the children had not been paid because they were still living in the slums of Mumbai. However, Boyle placed the money to be paid to the three lead child actors in a trust account to be released to them upon their completion of grade school. They should be 16 years of age when this happens. The production company has even set up for an auto-rickshaw driver to take the kids to school everyday until the goal is reached (IMDB). This is a huge benefit for the children.
Another benefit that came around after the film began development before the film had even been written. Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup wrote his novel “Q & A” after he was inspired by Professor Sugata Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” experiment. This experiment set up computer kiosks in Indian slums so that anyone could use them and have access to the internet. Swarup’s novel was later adapted into the screenplay of Slumdog Millionaire. After the attention and success from the film, the Hole in the Wall Education Limited (HiWEL) was expanded, which set up 300 kiosks to be available to over 300,000 children in India and several African countries (IMDB). The program is especially beneficial because it supplies educational tools for children. The stations are set up in an outdoor setting, which children can easily access at any time. As Rahul Anand says, “The unstructured and unsupervised nature of the setting ensures that the entire process of learning is driven by a child’s curiosity” (BI). Some teachers have even reported improved retention and increased receptivity among school children. Obviously, any form of improved education can only be a good thing.
While the film did spur plenty of controversy, it is easily seen that an equally impressive amount of effort was put forth to improve on the situations in India. Danny Boyle and the entire production group have called attention to important subject matters, an admirable endeavor that needs to be remembered. And maybe, just maybe, this will inspire more filmmakers to make films that help change the world for the better. The optimistic thought is that there will always be people who care about what the world is and will become. Those people know that to do something about it today is the most important future investment.
Works Cited
Anand, Rahul. “Hole in the Wall (HiWEL)- Spreading Computer Literacy” 2010.
www.thebetterindia.com/2330/hiwel
www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/slum-j16.shtml
Magnier, Mark. “Indians Don’t Feel Good About ‘Slumdog Millionaire’” January
2009. www.articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/24/world/fg-india-slumdog24
Mafia Gangs Are Deliberately Crippling Children For Profit” January 2009.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1127056
