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Slumdog Millionaire
neato189:
Just a note on the comments about slipping in and out of English. My girlfirend (who is Indian, and grew up there) says that particualrly in the big cities, people slip in and out of english constantly. Most people are taught it at a young age, and at this point it has been practicaly integrated into hindi. If you watch any of the Hindi musicals you will see them do this. Having seen the movie, I'm sure they amped it up a bit for claritys sake, but it wasnt completly unrealistic. Oh, and in regards to the dance sequence at the end - it was my girlfriends favorite part, because it made her feel like Boyle had genuine respect for Indian cinema tradiction, as practically no movie comes outof India without a dance scene. They were also doing pretty traditional dancing. I can see how some people wouldnt like it though, can be a bit jarring and doesnt seem to fit.
benji:
--- Quote from: neato189 on 07 Jan 2009, 08:16 ---Just a note on the comments about slipping in and out of English. My girlfirend (who is Indian, and grew up there) says that particualrly in the big cities, people slip in and out of english constantly. Most people are taught it at a young age, and at this point it has been practicaly integrated into hindi. If you watch any of the Hindi musicals you will see them do this. Having seen the movie, I'm sure they amped it up a bit for claritys sake, but it wasnt completly unrealistic. Oh, and in regards to the dance sequence at the end - it was my girlfriends favorite part, because it made her feel like Boyle had genuine respect for Indian cinema tradiction, as practically no movie comes outof India without a dance scene. They were also doing pretty traditional dancing. I can see how some people wouldnt like it though, can be a bit jarring and doesnt seem to fit.
--- End quote ---
As someone who has spent a bit of time in India, I agree 100% on the English thing. Switching back and forth between English and Hindi is very common among Indians, and especially on Indian TV. It's worth considering that English is one of India's national languages, and that people in many parts of the country prefer it to Hindi.
I also agree on the dancing. While I can see how it might have seemed cheesy, the fact is, that kind of dancing is central to the Indian film culture and if you're doing an Indian film with Indian actors, you really should have a dance number somewhere. The end credits let him give that nod to India without disrupting the rest of the story.
KvP:
Doesn't India have something like 17 native languages? English would be a good cultural ligament.
benji:
There are about 20 recognized official languages. This list has 61 languages, ranked by speakers, which are native to the subcontinent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_languages_by_total_speakers
Ballard:
That's a pretty fair explanation. Thanks!
Mind you, I took no issue with the dance sequence other than it seemed really out of place following such a poignant story.
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