M.I.A.

This essay reckons with the widespread criticism of Loveleen Tandan and Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008) as " poverty porn. " Under this umbrella contention, both Indian and American critics have accused the film of propagating orientalist and negative stereotypes of India, thus fetishizing the country through a nostalgic superiority. In contrast, my reading begins with key ideas offered by global digital humanists which allow me to open up my key argument: digital music collaboration between A.R. Rahman and M.I.A. on the film's soundtrack compels viewers to critically read the film in more complex and enriching ways. The musicians created the soundtrack by emailing digital music samples to one another between London and Chennai, thus adding a uniquely diasporic dimension to the soundtrack (which subsequently won many Grammy Awards). I contend that the images of Mumbai's poverty and the Dharavi slum look very different when set to the sounds of resistance proffered by both South Asian musicians. To support this contention, I contextualise three of the digital music collaborations between M.I.A. and Rahman

This article analyzes the life and work of refugee-turned-singer M.I.A. to explain the concept of refugee worlding, the transversal intersectional modes of being a refugee. Exploring the artist's unique aesthetics as well as her play with time-space, I indicate the ways such a practice is emblematic of the creative and critical methodology of Critical Refugee Studies (CRS). As a border hopper, M.I.A.'s imaginative mobilization and weaponizing of refugee-ness jump scales, musical and otherwise, a disruption of the militarized contexts that drive the flight of migrants. Such artprop takes stock of the many world(s) forged, embodied, performed, and crafted on refugee-centered terms.

In this essay, I use Lacanian film theory to critically analyze two biographical films—Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. (2018)—released in theatres around the same time that portray, using the rags-to-riches trope, two British recording artists who share a South Asian ethnicity.