My father had assumed that I would vote in the local elections (equivalent to the municipal elections in Indian cities). He was surprised that I came home without voting, and that I had not talked about it much. "You always jump about when there are elections, you get so excited", he said.
I didn't vote because I just didn't have the time to read up on the candidates. I didn't think it made sense to vote when I barely knew anything about the candidates.
Why didn't I have the time? I just got busy with work stuff. My corporate world encroached on my citizen participation. Democracy is time-consuming. Does unbridled capitalism leave time for real engaged participation in democracy?
"It is not flashy, but election might change power in city", as the local paper The Telegraph put it. I should have participated.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Uplifting SlumDog Millionaire
Uplifting. This term is being used fairly commonly to describe the movie SlumDog Millionaire. The movie is ‘uplifting’ because in spite of all the trials and tribulations Jamal undergoes the movie ends happily for him, causing people to leave the theater on a high note. But I take serious issue with that particular happy ending. My friend put it well when she said, “Everything bad that happens to him is because people do bad things to him. But everything good that happens to him is by accident”. In other words everything is against him; he only escapes his difficult childhood because 'it is written'. To me this implies a message that you have to be lucky to aspire for a different life than the one you are born into. If one accepts that thought, then one accepts status quo when it comes to the disadvantaged and underprivileged people in the world today. There are millions of people are being exploited, but there are always people who will escape their circumstances through sheer luck. I volunteer for Asha (http://www.ashanet.org/) because I am not happy with the small number who escape through sheer luck – I want everyone, or as many children as possible, to have the opportunities to improve themselves.
As the movie progressed all I could think of was the millions of children in similar circumstances who are not going to win the million dollars. Many have complained that the movie focused only on the negative side of India, and some wonder whether all that indeed happens in India. Asha volunteers know that nothing in the movie is inaccurate. We work with organizations that fight the powerful channels that supply young girls to men. We work with organizations that are fighting the begging mafia. And we work with organizations that deal with the aftermath of riots and work towards preventing more riots. We know all that happens in the movie happens to children, day after day. But we also know that one kid winning a million dollars is not a solution in any shape or form. I think the movie does a disservice to the problems it so starkly portrays by leaving viewers with an uplifting feeling. I wonder how many people run out of the movie theater wanting to do something. To me the movie’s end trivialized the solution to the problems the poor face.
It is of course the filmmaker's choice. He is not making a documentary, but an entertainer. But the challenges that Jamal faces to me were too realistic to be entertaining. Feel-good movies in general are not so starkly realistic when they portray the difficulties of the hero. The hero typically undergoes some difficulties and then something nice happens to him and the movie ends happily. Even if the difficulties are realistic, they are not the difficulties of a multitude of people. They are the difficulties of one hero and a few like him and he gets past them and lives happily ever after. The fact that this movie was so realistic in its portrayal of the difficulties, and then becomes so unrealistic in portraying how the hero's life changes for the better, really disturbed me. How can people find this uplifting? Or entertaining? Friends tell me I am taking the movie too seriously. But then the difficulties that kids like Jamal face ARE serious! And real!
Stark. That is what the movie felt like to me. Real situations where hope is represented by the very, very, VERY long shot of winning a million dollars.
As the movie progressed all I could think of was the millions of children in similar circumstances who are not going to win the million dollars. Many have complained that the movie focused only on the negative side of India, and some wonder whether all that indeed happens in India. Asha volunteers know that nothing in the movie is inaccurate. We work with organizations that fight the powerful channels that supply young girls to men. We work with organizations that are fighting the begging mafia. And we work with organizations that deal with the aftermath of riots and work towards preventing more riots. We know all that happens in the movie happens to children, day after day. But we also know that one kid winning a million dollars is not a solution in any shape or form. I think the movie does a disservice to the problems it so starkly portrays by leaving viewers with an uplifting feeling. I wonder how many people run out of the movie theater wanting to do something. To me the movie’s end trivialized the solution to the problems the poor face.
It is of course the filmmaker's choice. He is not making a documentary, but an entertainer. But the challenges that Jamal faces to me were too realistic to be entertaining. Feel-good movies in general are not so starkly realistic when they portray the difficulties of the hero. The hero typically undergoes some difficulties and then something nice happens to him and the movie ends happily. Even if the difficulties are realistic, they are not the difficulties of a multitude of people. They are the difficulties of one hero and a few like him and he gets past them and lives happily ever after. The fact that this movie was so realistic in its portrayal of the difficulties, and then becomes so unrealistic in portraying how the hero's life changes for the better, really disturbed me. How can people find this uplifting? Or entertaining? Friends tell me I am taking the movie too seriously. But then the difficulties that kids like Jamal face ARE serious! And real!
Stark. That is what the movie felt like to me. Real situations where hope is represented by the very, very, VERY long shot of winning a million dollars.
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