‘Slumdog’ no hit with Rushdie

“Slumdog Millionaire” —- an Oscar contender Sunday night —- may have been a hit with movie audiences. But not with Salman Rushdie.

“The movie piles impossibility on impossibility,” the famous novelist said in a lecture Sunday evening at Emory University.

In a particularly timely talk about “adaptations” —- books made into movies, and other translations —- Rushdie lambasted the “feel-good movie” and the book “Slumdog Millionaire” was based on.

His complaints ran the gamut from how characters acquire a gun in India to how they mysteriously wind up at the Taj Mahal, 1,000 miles from the previous scene.

That may be surprising coming from an author whose writing is known for a limited adhesion to reality. His narratives can veer into magical developments at the drop of the hat. But one of this movie’s problems, Rushdie said, is one it shares with other films.

“Again, the problem with this adaptation begins with the work being adapted,” he said.

Rushdie’s novels haven’t been made into movies yet, but he’s working on that now, including one of his much-honored book, “Midnight’s Children.”

He spent years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini pronounced a death sentence against him for his writing. In 2006 Emory won Rushdie’s papers for its archives; as part of that deal, the author gives occasional lectures over a period of five years as Distinguished Writer in Residence.

Sunday, he leaned heavily on movies that were up for Oscars including “The Reader” —- “[a] leaden, lifeless movie killed by respectability” —- and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” —- “It doesn’t finally have anything to say.”

Though there were some he praised, he also criticized several movie adaptations made long ago. But if his listeners minded, they didn’t show it. The 1,100 members of the sold-out audience gave him a standing ovation.

“I thought it was fantastic,” said Sharon Carlson, a 25-year-old Emory graduate student. She liked his wit, and found his jokes “a special way of relating to the audience.” She also liked “Slumdog,” but said his criticism of the film didn’t bother her. “Not at all.”

Rushdie attacked “bad social adaptations,” when people cave in to fear and censor themselves or others. He urged people and society to honor essential truths.

“Wishing to create better understanding between peoples, they can seek to prevent the expression of opinions,” he said. “Seeking to calm the violent hotheads in their midst, societies can try to appease them, and so give the violent hotheads the notion that their violence and hotheadedness is effective.”