It is a big task to watch a movie with no pre-conceived good opinion when everybody is feeding rave reviews about it into your ear from every quarter of the world. It becomes one helluva task when that same movie bags four golden globe awards...( i guess it sweeped all the awards it was nominated for.. am i right??). "Slumdog Millionaire" or SM has sweeped all the acclaimed awards of the world like a tsunami and all that beckons is the the ultimate prize........Oscars. The movie is due to be released in India this weekend and people are waiting.......i couldn't, so i flew to UK and saw it....( am so against piracy:P). So here goes my unbiased take on this movie.....
SM, as the name suggests is a story of a slum dog ( called jhopadpatti ka patti by mallus in mumbai:):)...........) who goes onto win 20 million rupees in a game show 'Who wants to be a millionaire? and is nabbed by the police who suspect him to be a cheat. The story is as simple as a nursery rhyme and needs no deeper meaning to understand. Or maybe it isn't. Coz' i assume the director(Danny Boyle) must have done something astoundingly brilliant to win the golden globe. The movie begins with a question and four options..... in typical KBC style . The movie ends with answer to that question. Most of us who are well acquainted with movie scripts already know the answer as we see the options in the beginning. Danny Boyle's brilliance lies in holding our undivided attention for 2 hours weaving a story whose end the audience already knows!
Coming back to the story line, the story revolves around "the three musketeers" as they like to call themselves-Jamal Malik, Jamal's elder bro Salim and Jamal's love Latika. The movie showcases the travails, adversity and so called adventures these three go through in their childhood, adolescence and teenage phase. The storyline moves giving explanation as to how Jamal Malik is able to know the answers to the questions in the show. Coincidence never seemed so purposeful ever!. Simon Beaufoy (the screenplay guy of the movie) does amazingly well juxtaposing the growth of actors with that of the story. It is very hard to convince ourself that a firang can etch such a real picture of mumbai slum life, amitabh mania or 1992 riots. Although initially the movie seemed to take the audience in all possible directions, it quickly manages to come back on track as Jamal emerges out of the pile of shit( that was gross!). From there, the movie makes you stick to your seat for the whole of two hours.
Casting for this movie was done by Lovleen Tandon as far or little as I know. Brilliance or lotsa guts, she chose a cast which would give our big producers bollywood second thoughts before putting their money. If an unknown Indian from Britain, Dev Patel, with a pronounced British accent is chosen to play a slum dog doesn't put a smirk on your face, Anil Kapoor trying to recreate Amitabhs KBC magic would at least break you into a chuckle. After the movie, i just smiled sheepishly at myself.
And then there was the magic of 'Mozart of Madras' as he is called in the west. I prefer to refer him as AR Rehman only( i have no fascination for Mozart's symphonies and Madras is now called Chennai:) ). Rehman does nothing special here. He does what he always does, breathes life into music. I am still getting in terms with the lyrics of most of the tracks but "Jai Ho" in the end credits sure gets my feet tapping.
I purposely haven't mentioned about actors in the movie as the movie did not require any super relative effort. Every person fits into their respective role without any visible discomfort. The entire weight of the movie is on Dev Patel's shoulders. For a newbie, he is impressive. Don't know if can emulate such performance without a powerful script. Wish him all the luck for Oscars anyways. The story of this movie is strong enough to raise the bar of all its actors.
I haven't seen the other movies that were nominated for golden globe. I don't know how wonderful this movie actually is. Just as I began watching the movie, i thought this seems like just another over hyped marketing trick. I instant messaged my friend on Gtalk that the movie doesn't seem that good to win a golden globe or have a shot at Oscars. By the end , my opinion had changed. Go for this movie if you don't wanna miss out on a conversation this weekend. India is going to talk a lot about Slumdog Millionaire.
SM, as the name suggests is a story of a slum dog ( called jhopadpatti ka patti by mallus in mumbai:):)...........) who goes onto win 20 million rupees in a game show 'Who wants to be a millionaire? and is nabbed by the police who suspect him to be a cheat. The story is as simple as a nursery rhyme and needs no deeper meaning to understand. Or maybe it isn't. Coz' i assume the director(Danny Boyle) must have done something astoundingly brilliant to win the golden globe. The movie begins with a question and four options..... in typical KBC style . The movie ends with answer to that question. Most of us who are well acquainted with movie scripts already know the answer as we see the options in the beginning. Danny Boyle's brilliance lies in holding our undivided attention for 2 hours weaving a story whose end the audience already knows!
Coming back to the story line, the story revolves around "the three musketeers" as they like to call themselves-Jamal Malik, Jamal's elder bro Salim and Jamal's love Latika. The movie showcases the travails, adversity and so called adventures these three go through in their childhood, adolescence and teenage phase. The storyline moves giving explanation as to how Jamal Malik is able to know the answers to the questions in the show. Coincidence never seemed so purposeful ever!. Simon Beaufoy (the screenplay guy of the movie) does amazingly well juxtaposing the growth of actors with that of the story. It is very hard to convince ourself that a firang can etch such a real picture of mumbai slum life, amitabh mania or 1992 riots. Although initially the movie seemed to take the audience in all possible directions, it quickly manages to come back on track as Jamal emerges out of the pile of shit( that was gross!). From there, the movie makes you stick to your seat for the whole of two hours.
Casting for this movie was done by Lovleen Tandon as far or little as I know. Brilliance or lotsa guts, she chose a cast which would give our big producers bollywood second thoughts before putting their money. If an unknown Indian from Britain, Dev Patel, with a pronounced British accent is chosen to play a slum dog doesn't put a smirk on your face, Anil Kapoor trying to recreate Amitabhs KBC magic would at least break you into a chuckle. After the movie, i just smiled sheepishly at myself.
And then there was the magic of 'Mozart of Madras' as he is called in the west. I prefer to refer him as AR Rehman only( i have no fascination for Mozart's symphonies and Madras is now called Chennai:) ). Rehman does nothing special here. He does what he always does, breathes life into music. I am still getting in terms with the lyrics of most of the tracks but "Jai Ho" in the end credits sure gets my feet tapping.
I purposely haven't mentioned about actors in the movie as the movie did not require any super relative effort. Every person fits into their respective role without any visible discomfort. The entire weight of the movie is on Dev Patel's shoulders. For a newbie, he is impressive. Don't know if can emulate such performance without a powerful script. Wish him all the luck for Oscars anyways. The story of this movie is strong enough to raise the bar of all its actors.
I haven't seen the other movies that were nominated for golden globe. I don't know how wonderful this movie actually is. Just as I began watching the movie, i thought this seems like just another over hyped marketing trick. I instant messaged my friend on Gtalk that the movie doesn't seem that good to win a golden globe or have a shot at Oscars. By the end , my opinion had changed. Go for this movie if you don't wanna miss out on a conversation this weekend. India is going to talk a lot about Slumdog Millionaire.
