ADFF: Mumbai’s King is no Slumdog

Nothing sells like slums at a film festival is not an uncommon belief. But director Manjeet Singh, who showcased the lives of two boys living in Mumbai’s underbelly in his debut feature Mumbai’s Kings, begs to differ.

“Actually it’s a risky thing for me. Slums are a clichéd subject in festivals. It has been done so many times. So as a filmmaker, it was a difficult road,” said Singh to tabloid! after the screening of his feature at the ongoing Abu Dhabi Film Festival. The film chronicles the never-say-die spirit of two poor young boys who come from broken homes. An abusive father, dropping out of school at teenage and petty theft are a part of their daily realities. But the Mumbai-based director says the intention was not to glorify poverty.

“Shouldn’t your question be other way round? We are five percent of middle class and all our stories are centred around that five per cent of Indian population. Why are we turning blind eye to real problems and making just escapist cinema,” said Singh.

He says manipulating the viewer’s emotions by glorifying the poorest people in the world was not his objective.

“Through this film, I wanted to show that to the outside world their lives may be bleak but their spirits are intact. Sometimes, when I feel down I go to the slums because it gives me a high. These people are inspiring,” said Singh referring to their strong survival instincts.

Naturally, his film with slums as a background evokes parallels to Danny Boyle’s Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire. Boyle’s hit saga threw up the catch phrase ‘poverty porn’ due to its explicit slum dweller scenes. After the film won eight Academy awards, the controversial slum tourism reportedly experienced a boom in Mumbai.

“My film has been compared to Slumdog Millionaire wherever I go. But it’s different, Slumdog is an outsider’s point of view. The director didn’t belong to the city and he has very little experience. He has just read a book and made a film,” said Singh. He also claims that Slumdog Millionaire didn’t paint a realistic picture.

“It is a larger than life film and it follows a certain blockbuster formula. These parallels are drawn because the set and the milieu is the same. But our approaches and thought is different.”

*’Mumbai’s King’ will be screened on October 15 at 9:15pm, Marina Mall Vox 6.