MUMBAI – Poor residents of Mumbai’s notorious slums continued their protests against local cinemas showing the British-produced film “Slumdog Millionaire.” The movie, which depicts a poor child of the streets fighting the odds and using his hard-earned life knowledge to win 20 million rupees on a game show while simultaneously bringing hope and happiness to the otherwise forgotten underclass of India’s largest city, has been labeled “depressingly unrealistic” and “cruelly encouraging” by social critics and advocates of the poor.
“We object to the suggestion that one of us could actually become a success and a symbol of hope,” said a spokesperson. “Dreaming that our lives are actually worth something, believing that the power of the human spirit makes us equal in the eyes of God and Fate despite the disparity in the measure of supposedly meaningless material riches, is just plain wrong.” The protesters demanded that all future movies about India focus on the glamorous lives of rich and famous people who spontaneously dance and sing near beautifully lit fountains.
