Slumdog Backlash

Who wants to be a "Slumdog Millionaire"? At the nanosecond Danny Boyle's dynamic and Dickensian tale of the great expectations of a Mumbai street kid  is the front-runner to sweep the Oscars. But critics, some of them in Slumdog's backyard, are sticking out their legs in efforts to trip up the film in its final laps toward the finish line. The critics are getting rabid about "Slumdog."

Most impassioned is Dennis Lim's consideration, which wonders to what extent the romance set against the backdrop of the Mumbai slums, can be considered "poverty porn."

"A white man's imagined India", complains a professor from India.

And then there's the grassroots campaign on behalf of  Loveleen Tandan, the film's assistant director, to share the director's glory if the film wins an Oscar for its filmmaker.

I very much like the film, don't think it condescends to its subjects or their milieu any more than Dickens condescended to his characters, and don't think it promotes "poorism" -- as wags have tagged slumming tourists. As for Tandan, she is on the record as saying it's Boyle's film.

Your thoughts?