Featuring a dynamic combination of landmark essays by leading critics and theorists, "The 'Slumdog' Phenomenon: A Critical Anthology" addresses multiple issues relating to "Slumdog Millionaire," providing new ways of looking at this controversial film.

Notes on Contributors; List of Figures; Acknowledgments; Introduction: The "Slumdog" Phenomenon - Ajay Gehlawat; "SLUMDOG" AND THE NATION: Chapter 1: National Allegory - Brian Larkin; Chapter 2: "Slumdog Millionaire" and the Emerging Centrality of India - Sharmila Mukherjee; Chapter 3: Slumlord Aesthetics and the Question of Indian Poverty - Nandini Chandra; Chapter 4: Watching Time: "Slumdog Millionaire" and National Ontology - Lakshmi Padmanabhan; "SLUMDOG" AND THE SLUM: Chapter 5: "Slumdog Millionaire" and Epistemologies of the City - Ulka Anjaria and Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria; Chapter 6: A Million Dollar Exit from the Slum-World: "Slumdog Millionaire"'s Troubling Formula for Social Justice - Mitu Sengupta; Chapter 7: Slumdogs and Millionaires: Facts and Fictions of Indian (Under)development - Snehal Shingavi; "SLUMDOG" AND BOLLYWOOD: Chapter 8: Slumdogs, Coolies and Gangsters: Amitabh Bachchan and the Legacy of 1970s Bollywood in "Slumdog Millionaire" - Claus Tieber; Chapter 9: "It is Written" (in Invisible Ink): "Slumdog Millionaire"'s SFX and the Realist Overwriting of Bollywood Spectacle - Samhita Sunya; "SLUMDOG"'S RECEPTIONS: Chapter 10: Why the Sun Shines on "Slumdog" - Anandam Kavoori; Chapter 11: "Slumdog" Celebrities - Priya Jaikumar; Chapter 12: "Slumdog Millionaire" and the New Middlebrow - Robert Koehler; Chapter 13: Slumdog Comprador: Coming to Terms with the "Slumdog" Phenomenon - Ajay Gehlawat; Chapter 14: The Life-Cycle of "Slumdog Millionaire" on the Web - Thomas Elsaesser and Warren Buckland; Conclusion: Jai Who? - Ajay Gehlawat; Select Bibliography; Films Cited; Index