SALMAN RUSHDIE - RUSHDIE RIDICULES SLUMDOG

RUSHDIE RIDICULES SLUMDOG

Author Salman Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai, the setting for Slumdog Millionaire , has written a critique of the movie for Britain's Guardian newspaper. In the article, published on Saturday, he attacked the movie's plot -- based on an Indian boy's winning the top prize on India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire -- as "a patently ridiculous conceit, the kind of fantasy writing that gives fantasy writing a bad name." He said that the notion that the boy could have learned all of the answers solely through life experiences "beggars belief." Twenty years ago revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruholah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death following the publication of Rushdie's The Satanic Verses , which the Ayatollah regarded as an insult to Islam. It has never been lifted.

02/03/2009