Slumdog Millionaire Movie

Even as American audiences gush over "Slumdog Millionaire," some Indians are groaning over what they see as yet another stereotypical foreign depiction of their nation, accentuating squalor, corruption and impoverished-if-resilient natives. "Slumdog," which earned 10 Oscar nominations this week, including one for best picture, is set in Mumbai, is based on an Indian novel and features many Indian actors. Yet the sensibility is anything but Indian, some critics argue.

Two child stars of "Slumdog Millionaire" are at risk of losing their monthly stipend and their trust fund if they don't at- tend school more regularly, a trustee for the fund said Thursday. Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 11, and Rubina Ali, 10, shot to fame after starring in the Oscar-winning movie. But these days, Azhar is showing up at school only 37% of the time, and Rubina has only a 27% attendance rate, the trustee said. "It's pathetic," said Noshir Dadrawala, who helps administer the Jai Ho trust established by the filmmakers to provide an education, living allowance and housing for the young stars, who both grew up in Mumbai's real-life shantytowns.

Determined to make the rags-to-riches drama "Slumdog Millionaire" as authentic as possible, director Danny Boyle reworked his film's first act, casting Hindi-speaking children from Mumbai's slums in two lead roles. Now his choice to put the impoverished 7-year-olds into the film has sparked a growing controversy that is threatening to overtake the movie's global goodwill.

A child star of the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire" moved into his new home Saturday in a Mumbai suburb, a far cry from the shanty by the railway tracks that had been his family's dwelling. Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 9, played the youngest Salim in British director Danny Boyle's rags-to-riches film about a slum dweller who ends up on a TV game show. His eyes bright and a big smile plastered on his face, Ismail showed off his new apartment in Vile Parle to guests.

Danny Boyle wasn't yet done with the Taj Mahal, but the Taj Mahal was done with him. The British director needed to grab a few more shots inside the Indian landmark for his new movie "Slumdog Millionaire," a drama about the remarkable life story of an orphan from Mumbai's slums. Yet the production was no longer welcome. "The people who were helping us there," Boyle says, "didn't help us." Some directors would have moved on and made do with what they had in the can.

Let's face it, with the final song and dance for this season's Academy Awards just days away, most of us have a case of the blahs, as in we've heard so much about the relative merits of this film or that, the endless "blah, blah, blah" that swirls around Oscar season like a dense perfume cloud, that we are weary, bone-weary of it all. Still, if I may, a last-minute "blah, blah, blah" about "Slumdog Millionaire."

After weighing the implications of bringing its youngest, poorest Indian actors to the Academy Awards, the makers of "Slumdog Millionaire" have decided to do so, and now expect the film's entire cast to arrive in time for Sunday night's Oscar ceremony. If the film wins the best picture Oscar, all nine of the youthful performers are expected to join producer Christian Colson on the stage of the Kodak Theatre.

Want to learn how to dance like a "Slumdog Millionaire"? As part of the pre-Oscar hoopla, personable 33-year-old Artesia-based Bollywood choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan was called in to instruct media personalities and television viewers in one of the most popular dance forms in the world, a combination of classical Indian dance, folk dance and Western styles like hip-hop, Latin and jazz.

"Slumdog Millionaire" was meant to capture Mumbai's "lust for life," director Danny Boyle said Tuesday, reacting to criticism that the film glamorized poverty in India. The cast and crew of the Oscar hopeful returned to India's bustling financial hub on Tuesday in the run-up to the premiere there of the critically acclaimed film, a rags-to-riches story of a boy competing on a TV game show. Some Indian newspapers and TV channels have criticized Boyle for romanticizing slums and peddling such grim realities as begging rackets, prostitution and crime as "Indian exotica."

A child star of the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire" moved into his new home Saturday in a Mumbai suburb, a far cry from the shanty by the railway tracks that had been his family's dwelling. Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 9, played the youngest Salim in British director Danny Boyle's rags-to-riches film about a slum dweller who ends up on a TV game show. His eyes bright and a big smile plastered on his face, Ismail showed off his new apartment in Vile Parle to guests.

The makers of the hit movie "Slumdog Millionaire" have bought a new home for one of the two child stars discovered in Mumbai's slums. Both children lost their homes last month when authorities demolished parts of their slum here. The purchase of a 250-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment for the family of Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, was completed Monday, said Nirja Mattoo, who helps oversee the Jai Ho trust set up by the filmmakers to help Azharuddin and his 9-year-old costar, Rubina Ali.

The child stars of the Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" returned to India on Thursday to a chaotic but rousing heroes' welcome. Hundreds of well-wishers waited for them at the Mumbai airport, where dozens of police, some heavily armed, were needed to escort the children through the cheering crowds. The film, a rags-to-riches tale set in Mumbai's slums, was the darling of the Academy Awards, winning eight Oscars on Sunday, including the award for best picture. The four children came out with arms around one another's shoulders.

Children broke into Bollywood dance numbers and crowds cheered in the narrow lanes of a teeming Mumbai slum Monday as their hometown heroes nabbed Hollywood's highest honors. Two of the child actors in "Slumdog Millionaire" were plucked from a desperately poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Mumbai to star in the rags-to-riches tale that stormed the Academy Awards.

Want to learn how to dance like a "Slumdog Millionaire"? As part of the pre-Oscar hoopla, personable 33-year-old Artesia-based Bollywood choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan was called in to instruct media personalities and television viewers in one of the most popular dance forms in the world, a combination of classical Indian dance, folk dance and Western styles like hip-hop, Latin and jazz.

Some movies can generate a spellbinding silence: a collective hush of audience anticipation, proof that the film has captured the attention of everyone in the theater. The deadly quiet that Danny Boyle heard in "Slumdog Millionaire's" first Hollywood screening was of a very different nature -- evidence that his underdog drama faced even longer odds than his film's uneducated game-show contestant.

After weighing the implications of bringing its youngest, poorest Indian actors to the Academy Awards, the makers of "Slumdog Millionaire" have decided to do so, and now expect the film's entire cast to arrive in time for Sunday night's Oscar ceremony. If the film wins the best picture Oscar, all nine of the youthful performers are expected to join producer Christian Colson on the stage of the Kodak Theatre.

Let's face it, with the final song and dance for this season's Academy Awards just days away, most of us have a case of the blahs, as in we've heard so much about the relative merits of this film or that, the endless "blah, blah, blah" that swirls around Oscar season like a dense perfume cloud, that we are weary, bone-weary of it all. Still, if I may, a last-minute "blah, blah, blah" about "Slumdog Millionaire."

Whenever there's an overwhelming favorite in the Oscar race, you can be sure, human nature being human nature, and the media being the media -- in short, an institution that likes to build 'em up and then knock 'em down -- that the overwhelming favorite will soon find itself fighting off a nasty backlash. That's exactly what's happening right now in the Oscar race to Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire," which in recent days has gone from beloved underdog to embattled front-runner.