Slumdog Millionaire: When the movie is better than the book

Last November (2008), I watched Slumdog Millionaire. I don’t think I can express how I  felt. Maybe it was one of those bad days when things are not going too well in your world. The movie was heavy with the harsh realities of the life of more than a third of the Indian population. I left the theatre with a strong desire to do something to make a difference and a desire to read the book on which the movie is based. This post reviews the book and the movie (maybe I will post an update on what I have done since then if it does end up making a difference in some one's life).
Slumdog Millionaire is based on the novel, Q&A written by Vikad Swarup, an Indian diplomat. Vikas Swarup, in an interview, mentioned that when Danny Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire, told him that he would preserve the body of his book, Swarup should have realized that Danny would kill the soul. This heightened my expectations of the book. Such a dramatic and powerful movie can only be based on really well written-book, or so I thought. Maybe I should mention that I belong to the old school where books are better than movies, even if the movie has won six Oscars.

Anyway I got a chance to lay my hand on Q&A, now republished as Slumdog Millionaire last week, and I have the following comparison to offer. The movie is indeed based on book’s content and follows the structure of the book, as a series of questions on the popular show -Who wants to be a billionaire? That’s where the similarity ends. The book is no more than a collection of loosely bound short stories while the movie is solid commentary on Indian society with a focus on urban Indian poor. Unfortunately the book does not develop its characters, focusing instead on a series of disparate events, some of them unbelievable. While the movie floors you not only with its characters, but also by vividly capturing the life of Dharavi, believed to be Asia’s biggest slum, in the heart in India's financial capital Mumbai. If the purpose of the author was to make a generic commentary on India, he needed even more meat on the bones, which the book does not have. The author’s way of capturing the role religion plays in Indian society, through a protagonist with the name ‘Ram Mohammed Thomas’ (RMT) is far more unrealistic & ineffective than the movie’s depiction of a mob.
There are lots of other changes that the movie’s screenplay makes, small big and other small. It omits stories of RMT aka Jamal Khan (the name of the movie’s protagonist) as a bartender and his adventures in Delhi at an Australian Diplomats house. It also twists the story line, introducing an under world don while omitting a contract killer. Overall, the screenplay effectively makes a collection of short stories into a coherent movie, one that rises above its individual characters while reflecting the reality of life of the urban Indian poor. It however does this while ensuring that the characters are well developed. In this case the movie is far better than the book.

British couple says CNN compromised them

Continuing from my last post, here is the official complaint by an British couple that thier safety was compromised by CNN, who broadcasted their cell phone conversatio. Now back home safely, Mrs Shaw says that they were safe till CNN stepped in.

  But the reason I would not want to talk to anyone is because our safety was actually compromised   by CNN, which broadcast where we were. The terrorists were watching CNN and they came down from where they were in a lift after hearing about us on television. For that reason I would appeal to the media to be very careful about what they broadcast. 

The couple's full story in  Walesonline & Huffington Post

Also there is this article in the Hindu citing the one captured terrorist that the goup had a state of the art GPS, several mobile phones & the fact that the Lashkar headquarters remained in touch with the group on a voice-over-internet (VOIP) service 

Mumbai terror attack - Are there any standards in Journalism ?

A tragedy of epic proportions and an indication how far & deep has terror taken roots in our society. A city hostage for three days. Gunmen out loose at ordinary citizen

The terror attacks in Mumbai took hostages in the city and outside. Guests in the Taj, Oberoi & the Jewish houses, Mumbaikers in the city & Indians in country & the diaspora worldwide, all glued to any communication they could get from anywhere. News channels Indian & those worldwide, newspapers national & international and the Internet & all other media of communication, all hostage to sights of terror.

But as I watched, I wondered how many of those deaths were caused the footage hungry media and common-senseless politicians. Indian home minister Shivraj Patil gave the exact number NSG personal & commandos sent to counter terrorists & also, the exact time when the operation would began. Sorry, but that not called sending men for an operation. Its probably like sending then on a death mission. Don't these politicians have any respect, any concern for men who risk their lives for the country.

The rest of damage was done by news channels. They have long got over any sense of responsibility to anyone I think. Consider those live accounts of operations, 'the operation is now on this floor', 'this many policemen & commandos coming in with directions'. It was done better than the masterminds of operation would have ever imagined when they were planning this. They relayed coverage with accounts of guest's whereabouts in Taj leading to the killing of more than one. The story was repeated again at the hostage crisis in the Jewish house. 'Yes there are hostages, these are the details of the men hostage & our information on the terrorists inside'. And if that was not all, we were fed with the detail that the Indian police, army & commandos  have decided to tackle the Taj & Oberoi first so the terrorists in Jewish Center could take a nap & rest be fresh before the combat. Of course the media would give them a timely warning before the operation were to begin, complete with the visuals of helicopter dropping of commandos and the exact number.that were coming. 

Imagine being a terrorist inside the building, all that information directly playing on the TV in front of you, or maybe the smart phone with which you watch TV on the Internet or if all that was not possible just a normal phone and someone relaying all that live coverage for you.  When told not to broadcast in live we had a jerk jouralist on NDTV 24X7 tell that the footage is not live as requested by the army. He proudly went on to add that , 'Its delayed by 6 minutes'. 

All this makes me wonder at the standards of Indian journalism. Do these people not know what should be broadcast and what shouldn't ? Or, do we only have men who can talk along and those can take camera footage? All of them without an iota of commonsense.  Or maybe its worse than that. They know all this and they chose to ignore it for high TRPs (viewers ratings). It is eyeball hungry journalism with no regards for the ethics of profession.

Almost 200 people dead & number of those injured varying with accounts as the exact count is unverifiable. 

Publish Post

I feel sorry for all this but most of all I am sorry for the death of morality, ethics & standards in journalism. May it rest in peace. And I worry, for the repeat of all this when a moment of crises comes next, for the someone whose morality is dead, wouldn't even realise when they make the same mistake yet again.

My adventure with the Mumbai Cops

Written sometime in June 2007

Declaration :This comes an educated professional running in her usual in the rat race with no links to crime scene/underworld etc.

Information : This comes six month late, but have moved to Mumbai. Have a car with a Punjab registration which after being damaged in an accident was parked outside my building with me waiting for a weekend to get it repaired, till one morning.

Just one morning while I was running behined schedule a little bit as usual, I saw two cops standing in the street where my car was parked for the last few days. I looked carefully there were cops, but no car. Oh my God! Did someone stole my car or what ? More than anything else I was shocked. Who would steal my car. To be fair it still runs, but nevertheless it is  almost a decade old, badly maintained, not cleaned for two months and at the end of it all, a B segment car in the middle of those newer Sedans.

Shocked at the thief whose standards were so low, I approached the cops . To my surprise the policemen jumped at discovering who the owner was. I was very pleased to hear that they had been looking almost the whole night. How concerned & dutibound, I thought.

I began talking and their questions went something like this

Who owned that car ?
For how many days was it here ?
Why was it there ?
When did it come ?
What was the purpose?
When did I last use it / Did some one else use it / The apparent accident that had happened / When/ Where etc etc?

I was shocked. What was going on ? Why was this policeman acting so weirdly ? The fact that the registration of the car is not in my name (The vehicle belongs to my dad and my parents are based out of Delhi) did not help the case at all.

And then the contours of the dramatic story unfolded.

It seems someone in the neighbouring building had intimated the cops last night of the suscipicious vehicle parked opposite his gate. According to him the vehicle was old, uncleaned, had an accident and, had a Punjab number. Clearly, this had to be bomb. These guys had been there since early morning trying to find the elusive owner & the scary bomb.

What happened thereon is history. I signed some papers (statement) went to the police station explained the case, and promptly gave my car to the nearest workshop for cleaning then & there. Inspite of everything that transpired, my interaction with cops was polite & cordial. I liked the professional treatment.

PS: That was the first time I ever went to the police station. Just recording another step in my growth as a person
Moral of the story : Keep your cars clean & get them repaired as soon as you have an accident.

The memories of a city: Mumbai

I am a born and bred North Indian. So much that I often describe Delhi as the place I belong to, to cut short the details. The first time I visited Bombay ( The old name symbolises some things & I prefer it to the new one) was ten years back. The first impressions of the city have been such that I rank it above any other. One of the few cities (in India) where people queued for buses, where a female could safely take a taxi at 11 pm , place where people have much more civic sense then our national capital, where taxi drivers would not cheat you if you did not know the way (unlike delhi or chennai). A city that was untouched by the fundamentalism & culture police and, had a night life.

For those used to bus travel in Delhi, let me recall an incident which happened 10 years ago.
I was boarding a BEST bus with my travel group (5 people), when the buses conductor said he could take more than two of us on borad. Reason, the standing capacity of the bus was X (I don't remember the number) and he could accomodate only two of us. So either we split or wait for the next bus (15 minutes or something). For us, used to passengers hanging out of Delhi buses and the scant regard of traffic rules generally around the country, this was a welcome surprise.

That was Bombay ten years ago. Things have changed since then. With the mounting population pressures , Mumbai's infrastructure seems to be creaking. But, what has not changed is the spirit of a Mumbaikar (the new term for Bombayites).

Salaam Bombay

In spite of being a born & brought up in North India and having spent the last eight years of my life in NCR(National Capital Region) I have always been a great fan of Bombay. My recent visit to Bombay reinforced my faith in the commercial capital of India.


I was in Mumbai on Dec 20, to receive the CRISIL Young Thought Leader award.. Tired due to the train and the flight journeys which did not let me get my required sleep, I ended up taking a little nap in the cab which transported me from the office of CRISIL to the venue of the award ceremony. I was woken up by the cab driver at the destination where I walked into this multistory building with groggy eyes. Once inside the building, I realized my wallet was missing. The fare was paid by a colleague so I had not noticed this earlier. Desperately hoping that I had forgotten it in the office, I called up only to be told that it wasn't there. Then it hit me - I had left my wallet in the cab. That's it, my wallet was gone. Neither me nor any of my fellow travelers had the cab number. It was a cab we hired from the roadside so no way to reach/find out. I tried to think positive. Maybe the taxi was still standing outside for some reason. Highly unlikely, I told myself. The taxi driver would have left the place as soon as he discovered the wallet. Anyways I did try and have a look at the taxis outside the building. That I did not recognize the driver did not help matters at all. I came back resigned to fate - My wallet was lost.

About an hour later, the HR person from CRISIL came with a slightly fat middle aged man who had come searching for me. He didn't look like one of the audience members or the participants of the presentation ceremony. The guy was the cab driver who had driven back and was searching for me. Strange indeed, considering locating anyone in that multi-storied building would not have been easy task. He found my identity card and tried calling only to realize that those were Jamshedpur numbers. He refused to hand over the wallet to anyone except me. The wallet had everything intact - cash, ATM cards, credit card and some bills.
... The spirit of Bopmbay (Mumbai).

Another salute to the city which I have always held in high regard. There is something about this place which makes people the way they are - professional , stretching to their limits , honest and efficient. Why I rave about Bombay so much? That question requires another huge post. Maybe my next one. Till then, Salaam Bombay.