Teaching English and the Theory of Knowledge at the Antwerp International School in Antwerp, Belgium a couple of years ago, the movie Slumdog Millionaire came out and became a heated topic at the school for a variety of reasons.
The student body has a near-majority of wealthy Indian students, mostly hailing from Mumbai, and they come and go to Mumbai several times a year, often along with their parents who are all high-level players and owners in the diamond industry of cutting and trading.
When Slumdog came out, it was met with highly mixed reviews from the students. Some of them loved it as a movie about India had broke into the social consciousness of Belgium and the West, while others were extremely defensive about the movie, saying that "Mumbai and/or India is not like that!" To which others would respond in two ways, in agreement, or astonishment.
Apparently, as I will soon find out, you have to drive past kilometers of slums to get from the airport to the center. In other words, there is no way you could not see this part of Mumbai if you fly into it. I was reminded of living in Italy when President Bush came to visit Rome. Being chums with Berlisconi at the time, there was a massive, and I mean massive protest of over one million angry Italians lining the streets of Rome to protest the motorcade. What happened was rather spectacular. The Italian government finagled it so that Bush's motorcade was redirected and did not pass a single protest manifestation! Bush did not see a thing.
Similar to Forester's A Passage to India, Slumdog was made by a "white" guy. Like the more recent movie, Hangover 2, there has been a backlash of negative imaging by an outsider, India in the former, Bangkok/Thailand in the latter.
I personally thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but I will be interested to see what my reaction will be to it as I will soon be making that journey from the airport to Mumbai center.
I will let you know.
In the meantime, this video gives a good montage of the movie.
Slumdog Millionaire's Jai Ho
Showing posts with label Slumdog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slumdog. Show all posts
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Paper Planes
Touching down in Newark's Liberty airport is always an interesting feeling for me. I am back, here I am, in America. Sometimes this feeling is relief, sometimes with misgivings.
This time was reflective, but nice. Hot, but nice.
I Heart Newark, the airport at least. I have flown into Dallas, Houston, JFK, Dulles (now Reagan), Atlanta, Chicago, and Newark for my port of entry to the US, and by far I enjoy coming into Newark the most, much to the chagrin of my sister who lives in Chicago, though it is not personal, I just like Newark the best. Something about the atmosphere in the Customs/Passport control that I just love. It is edgy with a smile.
I have never had to wait more than about 10 minutes to get through. It is efficient, with talkative and friendly agents, but with that edge that you can only get in the East Coast. There were many of us coming from various flights, being shuffled quite smoothly into about forty lanes with only a few people in line. Some of us jockeyed for a better position in a line other than the one assigned, sheepishly admitting, myself included as my daughter really had to go to the bathroom... One of the boisterous, large African American officers said to another woman next to me who had done the same jostling, and with a sardonic smile, laugh, half-mocking, half-welcome to the US, said, "oh, that line is a couple inches shorter, feels good doesn't it? Better you feel much better now." I had to smile at myself for being so impatient after having to be so patient already.
Standing there in line, I remembered M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" for some reason. It became popular from "Slumdog Millionaire" and many of my students had it on their iPods at the International school I taught at in Antwerp, in addition to Harry Potter Puppet videos to torture me with. M.I.A. is a Tamil native who made it big. Would love to catch her live sometime in India.
This video, though, is not from the movie, but clips of New York, with a cameo from Fulton Street if you look closely around 55 seconds in.
Enjoy!
Paper Planes
This time was reflective, but nice. Hot, but nice.
I Heart Newark, the airport at least. I have flown into Dallas, Houston, JFK, Dulles (now Reagan), Atlanta, Chicago, and Newark for my port of entry to the US, and by far I enjoy coming into Newark the most, much to the chagrin of my sister who lives in Chicago, though it is not personal, I just like Newark the best. Something about the atmosphere in the Customs/Passport control that I just love. It is edgy with a smile.
I have never had to wait more than about 10 minutes to get through. It is efficient, with talkative and friendly agents, but with that edge that you can only get in the East Coast. There were many of us coming from various flights, being shuffled quite smoothly into about forty lanes with only a few people in line. Some of us jockeyed for a better position in a line other than the one assigned, sheepishly admitting, myself included as my daughter really had to go to the bathroom... One of the boisterous, large African American officers said to another woman next to me who had done the same jostling, and with a sardonic smile, laugh, half-mocking, half-welcome to the US, said, "oh, that line is a couple inches shorter, feels good doesn't it? Better you feel much better now." I had to smile at myself for being so impatient after having to be so patient already.
Standing there in line, I remembered M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" for some reason. It became popular from "Slumdog Millionaire" and many of my students had it on their iPods at the International school I taught at in Antwerp, in addition to Harry Potter Puppet videos to torture me with. M.I.A. is a Tamil native who made it big. Would love to catch her live sometime in India.
This video, though, is not from the movie, but clips of New York, with a cameo from Fulton Street if you look closely around 55 seconds in.
Enjoy!
Paper Planes
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