Orientalist Representation of India in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire

Abstract

This research studies Slumdog Millionaire, a movie based on the novel Q & A and directed by the British director Danny Boyle, to explore how and why Boyle has represented India. Using the post-colonial perspective in general and idea of representation and the concept of Orientalism in particular the thesis analyzes the politics of representing the Orient under predefined images created by the Occident. This movie is an imposition of the orientalist ideology of the director who tries to differentiate the West from the East thereby showing Indians as irrational, superstitious, barbaric and brutal. The director focuses on slum, rusticity, religious violence, rude language and behavior, futile administration and security system disrespecting the real condition of modern India. It is a complete imposition of prejudiced colonial legacy represented by the director who tries to term India and the ‘Third World’ as the ‘Orient’; and in the meantime, differentiates it from the West or the ‘First World’. The movie exposes the orientalist ideology by presenting the characters like Jamal Malik and Salim as slum kids who grow up and live in slum. The director presents those characters as stereotypes of all Indian kids, who are shown to be poor, rustic, barbaric and savage and at the same time hegemonized by English language and culture.