Jai ho!- The Tale Behind
9:28 AM Edit This 1 Comment »by Kiran Tom Sajan
2009 seems to be a golden year for the Indian movies and movies about India. International movie buffs' hot topic of this year is India and India's lifestyle, thanks to the Academy Award Winning 'Slumdog Millionaire'. It seems that we Indians are content about the fact that Hollywood is discussing about India. Only a few are really concerned about 'how' they discuss about our nation. Slumdog Millionaire, which portrays the dark side of the life in India, though can never be criticized for telling the 'truth'. Some people feel India's ugly underbelly has been magnified by filming the movie in the slums of Mumbai. Director Danny Boyle however, who sees his film as a Dickensian tale, says he shot in real, gritty locations “to show the beauty and ugliness and sheer unpredictability” of the city. As many would agree, it is a fact that the West always wants to see us in the way it is portrayed in Slumdog Millionaire.
Anyway, the point of discussion here is not 'how we make fools of ourselves', but how far Slumdog Millionaire is a remake of the Brazilian movie Cidade de Deus (aka City of God) in the Indian background. All those who have seen City of God must have felt a connection between both movies. Both tell the story of two brothers, the elder a gangster and the younger, an ambitious, good hearted young guy with a desire for love. While in City of God the protagonist fails to regain his lost love, Slumdog Millionaire offers the hero his love in typical Bollywood style.
City of God is a Brazilian thriller directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, released in 2003. It was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins. The film's depiction of criminal drug mafias, gangsters, street violence and police corruption was certainly not what the upper middle class Brazilians wanted to show to the rest of the world. However, the movie gained wide acceptance from the international audiences and interestingly, City of God became one of the biggest hits in the history of foreign films released in US.
Majority of the cast in City of God were residents of slums in Rio de Janeiro. The same formula was used in Slumdog Millionaire too, in which its co-director Loveleen Tandan drove to the slums of East Bandra to look for young children who resembled the protagonists in the story. Also, both the movies have added a yellow tinge to the visuals to give'slumness' to the story. There were many shots in Slumdog which resembled those in City of God. The Brazilian flick starts in the present and then rewinds the story starting from kids playing football. Slumdog also starts in the present and the flash-back starts from kids playing cricket.
But, the significant similarity between both the movies is the way people accepted it. Despite being good movies, both received immense criticism from the local spectators, while the international audiences accepted it whole-heartedly. The psychology associated with the acceptance of the movies can be termed as Schadenfreude a German word meaning, finding delight in others' struggles and misfortunes.
2009 seems to be a golden year for the Indian movies and movies about India. International movie buffs' hot topic of this year is India and India's lifestyle, thanks to the Academy Award Winning 'Slumdog Millionaire'. It seems that we Indians are content about the fact that Hollywood is discussing about India. Only a few are really concerned about 'how' they discuss about our nation. Slumdog Millionaire, which portrays the dark side of the life in India, though can never be criticized for telling the 'truth'. Some people feel India's ugly underbelly has been magnified by filming the movie in the slums of Mumbai. Director Danny Boyle however, who sees his film as a Dickensian tale, says he shot in real, gritty locations “to show the beauty and ugliness and sheer unpredictability” of the city. As many would agree, it is a fact that the West always wants to see us in the way it is portrayed in Slumdog Millionaire.
Anyway, the point of discussion here is not 'how we make fools of ourselves', but how far Slumdog Millionaire is a remake of the Brazilian movie Cidade de Deus (aka City of God) in the Indian background. All those who have seen City of God must have felt a connection between both movies. Both tell the story of two brothers, the elder a gangster and the younger, an ambitious, good hearted young guy with a desire for love. While in City of God the protagonist fails to regain his lost love, Slumdog Millionaire offers the hero his love in typical Bollywood style.
City of God is a Brazilian thriller directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, released in 2003. It was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins. The film's depiction of criminal drug mafias, gangsters, street violence and police corruption was certainly not what the upper middle class Brazilians wanted to show to the rest of the world. However, the movie gained wide acceptance from the international audiences and interestingly, City of God became one of the biggest hits in the history of foreign films released in US.
Majority of the cast in City of God were residents of slums in Rio de Janeiro. The same formula was used in Slumdog Millionaire too, in which its co-director Loveleen Tandan drove to the slums of East Bandra to look for young children who resembled the protagonists in the story. Also, both the movies have added a yellow tinge to the visuals to give'slumness' to the story. There were many shots in Slumdog which resembled those in City of God. The Brazilian flick starts in the present and then rewinds the story starting from kids playing football. Slumdog also starts in the present and the flash-back starts from kids playing cricket.
But, the significant similarity between both the movies is the way people accepted it. Despite being good movies, both received immense criticism from the local spectators, while the international audiences accepted it whole-heartedly. The psychology associated with the acceptance of the movies can be termed as Schadenfreude a German word meaning, finding delight in others' struggles and misfortunes.
1 comments:
hey i didnt know about the similarity of the movie with the brazilian movie... thanks for that. but i think it is unfortunate that the books and movies that get international acclaim has to portray india's bad side... booker prize winning books for instance. inheritance of lost- insurgency, God of small things- cast system, Midnight's childre- corruption and dark side of Indira Gandhi etc etc
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