Salman Rushdie and the cinema

Salman Rushdie is, I think, one of the most over-evaluated writers of our time. Sentenced to death (fatwa) by some fanatics has always tried to get into the cinema business, but this is not for him. Now he speaks out about Slumdog Millionaire, a great movie. A great idea. I believe mister Rushdie has missed an opportunity to shut up....

Rushdie dubs 'Slumdog Millionaire' ridiculous

LONDON (AFP) — British-Indian author Salman Rushdie has attacked the plot of multiple Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as a "patently ridiculous conceit".

Rushdie wrote in Britain's Guardian newspaper that the central feature of the film -that a boy from the Mumbai slums manages to succeed on the Indian TV version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" -- "beggars belief."

"This is a patently ridiculous conceit, the kind of fantasy writing that gives fantasy writing a bad name," the author of "The Satanic Verses" said in the article published Saturday.

Rushdie said the central weakness of the film -- which won eight Oscars -- was that it was adapted from a book by Indian diplomat-novelist Vikas Swarup called "Q&A" which is itself "a corny potboiler, with a plot that defies belief."

"It is a plot device faithfully preserved by the film-makers, and lies at the heart of the weirdly renamed Slumdog Millionaire. As a result the film, too, beggars belief," wrote Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai.

Rushdie signed off a long lament about the quality of film adaptations of books by saying: "We can only hope that the worst is over, and that better movies, better musicals and better times lie ahead."

The author last month marked the 20th anniversary of the Islamic death sentence imposed on him by Iran following the publication of "The Satanic Verses".