Slumdog millionaire

Ruth and I recently went to see the film Slumdog Millionaire which is creating a lot of noise in the media after receiving Oscar nominations. Initially we were put off seeing it with stories of violence, poverty, and sexual exploitation. Were somehow implicitly guilty in going to the cinema to see this for entertainment and then return to our safe, warm house? Were we just voyeurs, looking over to India, and seeing soemthinng awful and turning away?
The IMDB descibes it as "the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions.Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out. At the heart of its storytelling lies the question of how anyone comes to know the things they know about life and love"
At the end we realised that the power of film is to transport you to another place, to feel and smell the reality of the place, get inside the head of the characters and identify with them. It provoked us, challenged our stereotypes about India and made us wonder what is happening. Society is changing, but the rich get richer, unscrupulous people exploit for their own gain, and ther poor get a raw deal. This was not frivolous entertainment but a window on part of the world and what is happening. We cast our minds back to the Stand and what we learnt about trafficking, and the Dalits, and made the decision to stand up for those who have no voice.