Urbanization In Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire

Often times people visualize a country they have yet to visit with correspondence to a relevant movie or image they have seen. India, a South Asian country of one billion people, is generally either viewed as the colorful, gold filled realm shown in the Tom Cruise starrer, Mission Impossible, or as the poverty stricken, slum infested land depicted in Danny Boyles’s, Slumdog Millionaire. Although these two portrayals may seem drastic, they are not too far off the accuracy of what India is as a nation. No country wants to be left behind as the era of development and expansion continues to proceed. With the same mindset, India has set out to revive its “third-world” image. As a result of urbanization, the establishment of large corporations and infrastructures by the wealthy is only widening the disparity between the rich and poor while …show more content…
Unfortunately, land acquisition has become a very normal act in which the rich have extreme back up from the government and take over lands which they deem to be profitable for infrastructure. But why is land and property weighted more than individuals? Surprisingly, it all boils down to wanting to present one’s self in the most proper, grand, and developed way. The issues with the poor have less to do with the poor themselves and instead with their appearance as “eyesores, as stains on an otherwise “posh” landscape…[The] main complaint [is] not about illness in the neighborhood or noxious smells, but rather the appearance of ‘filth’ and a general revulsion of the senses” (Ghertner 1173). This is also depicted in Roy’s informational video titled, “Who See’s Poverty”, which beautifully illustrates how prosperous citizens of a city often turn a blind eye to the necessitous who are considered to have “sorcerer eyes”. The people are not so bothered by the poor asking for help or begging as they are by their below par presentation hurting the upscale