Magical unrealism
Salman Rushdie is not a fan of Slumdog Millionaire.
“The movie piles impossibility on impossibility,†the famous novelist said in a lecture Sunday evening at Emory University.
Uhh. . .like Midnight’s Children? Which you wrote?
In a particularly timely talk about “adaptations†—- books made into movies, and other translations —- Rushdie lambasted the “feel-good movie†and the book “Slumdog Millionaire†was based on. His complaints ran the gamut from how characters acquire a gun in India to how they mysteriously wind up at the Taj Mahal, 1,000 miles from the previous scene.
That may be surprising coming from an author whose writing is known for a limited adhesion to reality. His narratives can veer into magical developments at the drop of the hat. But one of this movie’s problems, Rushdie said, is one it shares with other films. “Again, the problem with this adaptation begins with the work being adapted,†he said. Rushdie’s novels haven’t been made into movies yet, but he’s working on that now, including one of his much-honored book, “Midnight’s Children.â€
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 24th, 2009 at 15:17
Salman Rushdie = hater?
February 25th, 2009 at 12:20
Josko day.
That was an incredibly pregnant sentiment, Mr. Rushdie’s two cents on “Slumdog Millionaire”–hateration indeed! It was the equivalent of the cabbage pejoratively calling the broccoli green.
And I’m saying all this as a fan of his writing. His comment just smacked of an elitist aesthetic standard that is dismissive of anything that has mass appeal. I can get behind any injunction against cheap, formulaic entertainment and purposeless kitsch. However, Mr. Rushdie just made it seem as though a story that is understood by people across a diverse set of demographic–a movie that is understood by those who’d seen the movie in a very primal sense, and felt catharsis–should be dismissed.
February 26th, 2009 at 16:15
The only thing that seemed interesting to me about Salman Rushdie lately was that Ian McEwan was the one that gave him sanctuary after that fatwa was issued on him.