MovieChat Forums > Lion (2017) Discussion > White colonialist types should really le...

White colonialist types should really leave India alone

posted 8 years ago by everybody_the_critic
45 replies | jump to latest

Your depictions of India and her citizens and so one-sided and bleak, full of stereotypes and racial tropes, that it makes me want to go and make a movie about fat 600 pound whites eating mcDs all day and getting divorces and cancer, with pedophile priests in a society full of depression and drug abuse! Of course that kind of movie would never get Oscar or Golden Globe buzz because - let's face it, who wants to see the dark underbelly of our own societies!! India does not need your help, in fact two hundred years of colonialism and looting by colonial powers (your so called enlightened whites) is what has led to the current state of affairs in India. Please take your colonialism and neocolonialism and your BS movies elsewhere.
As far as this man's personal story goes, yes he had a powerful story but it was completely overpowered by the stench of the racism and white superiority complex displayed especially in the first part of this movie.
By the way, look in your own backyard, they are full of runaways living on streets being sexually exploited, and full of homeless people freezing to death in subzero temperatures.
Needless to say, 0 stars out of 10 from me.

[–] JestersDead2 8 years ago

Bad day at the call centre bro?

[–] scionic2020 8 years ago

I feel the same way about Indians who come here to cheat and scam the H1B system, and displace experienced American workers with families. Indians come here and attend scam consultancies, get 4 - 6 weeks of "training" (watching YouTube videos), and lie on their CV's/resumes and it turns into 8 - 10 years of fake experience. Praise the heavens for Trump, he'll fix all the problems the libs in SillyCon Valley have created.

When India(ns) stops their H1B scam, we'll consider all the BS you typed in your OP. Fair enough?

[–] I_Created_U 8 years ago

When India(ns) stops their H1B scam, we'll consider all the BS you typed in your OP. Fair enough?

Typical irrational conservative thinking. Only in an uneducated conservative mind would it be acceptable to equate the killing and enslaving of millions of people and the theft of trillions during centuries with the activity of a few thousands Indian scammers.

That's like a serial rapist calling a jaywalker a criminal.

People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs

[–] ablack90 8 years ago

As far as this man's personal story goes, yes he had a powerful story but it was completely overpowered by the stench of the racism and white superiority complex displayed especially in the first part of this movie.

I was interested to read your take on this film. I also thought about the horrible effects of colonialism on India and the irony that years later, Caucasian families (eg Australia) adopt children from the very country that was colonized. That didn't escape me.

But I didn't see the film portraying India as some backward hell-hole. In fact, I was deeply touched by the beauty and simplicity of Suresh' home village. They are more close to nature and this alone puts them a notch above so many cultures reeling from the destructive forces of materialism, modernism and egoism. No. I didn't see the portrayal of India the same way as you.

And take heart, there are many films about the under-belly of American and European society. Lion is not a jab at India. It's in fact a portrayal of how deeply connected humanity is, despite race, religion and creed. The two mothers hugging at the end says it all. See the good.

[–] questie_elf 8 years ago

Look, you clearly have a lot of personal issues, but you can keep them. Your own issues have nothing to do with this film. Zero. This film is NOT about India at all, or about you, it is about an Indian boy who got separated from his family and grew up in Australia but found his way back home against all odds. I expected the most controversial themes to be about adoption, or how lost or neglected children are treated. "Race" is one of the least relevant issues coming out of this film.
But while it's a topic, privileged "white colonist" countries like the US and Australia, should be reminded of how fortunate and privileged we are. Most white people don't realise. It's not a negative thing at all.
Good luck dealing with your personal issues. I hope you can find some peace.

[–] kylen48 8 years ago

Spotlight won the Oscar for best picture last year and focused heavily on pedophile priests. Also, most Oscar movies are kind of depressing.

[–] TheDemon (596) 5 years ago

Racist freak.

[–] Mynvosa (117) 9 months ago

I know its several years later and you're probably not going to read this, but the comment is just too ridiculous to pass up. Its already been mentioned several times that this movie is accurate to the real life events. What you want is for entire film production to lie about someone else's life story because for no other reason that its a Western production. AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO CALL THE FILMMAKERS RACIST!?

I live in India, and if you do too, then you know for a fact that its impossible to film portray any part of North India without portraying poverty at some level. Even the richest areas in North India will have illegal constructions nearby. Every bridge or underpass has at least one unhoused person, and for as many unsupervised children I've seen begging at traffic stops, or outside of shopping outlets, it's a miracle that more don't go missing every year.

Australia was not involved in colonising India. At all. And After 76 years of independence you can't keep pulling the pulling the colonisation card. India now has a more unequal wealth distribution that than in era of the British Raj. It's no other nation's fault that your politicians are corrupts, that India doesn't enact fair labour laws or that as a collection of cultures, Indians have refused to establish ethical family planning practices so that there will never be enough resources to go around even if things do improve one day. And South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong were themselves colonies of other powers. Yet today they perform very well globally. If countries with the same circumstances were all able to improve upon themselves after colonization and India can't, that's India's problem. Stop with the victim complex.

By the way, look in your own backyard, they are full of runaways living on streets being sexually exploited, and full of homeless people freezing to death in subzero temperatures.

28.9% of children experiencing some form of sexual abuse in India and that gets much higher in individual states. Highest sexual abuse was reported in Assam (57.27%) followed by Delhi (41%), Andhra Pradesh (33.87%) and Bihar (33.27%). In Australia, 11% of women and 3.6% men. I think it's pretty clear which country has a bigger problem with sexual abuse.

Also people freezing to death? In Australia? Australia is a tropical country! Unless you're talking about Australian bases in Antartica, then I'm not sure what you're talking about. Australia is the driest inhabited continent in the entire world. It's 18% desert. 70% of it is either arid or semi arid land. Almost no inhabited area even approaches 0 degrees Celsius let alone subzero temperatures.

Citations:
https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/child-sexual-abuse-in-india-alarming-statistics-lifelong-impact-how-to-heal-2416285-2023-08-04

https://journals.lww.com/ijmr/fulltext/2015/42010/child_sexual_abuse__issues___concerns.1.aspx#:~:text=The%20child%20sexual%20abuse%20is,some%20point%20of%20time1.

https://www.aihw.gov.au/family-domestic-and-sexual-violence/types-of-violence/child-sexual-abuse#how-many