Slumdog Millionaire blew me away just as I expected it will. Usually movies which I am excited to see turn out to be good, but you build up so much expectation that you come back a little disappointed. Not so with Slumdog.
Ofcourse, the plot is not entirely believable and there are places where if you are a purist or literal you can question. But then that will be missing the point of a movie. It is to entertain and awe and if it makes you think (helpfully without making too much of effort) then it has served the purpose. Slumdog these things but also it is aesthetically pleasing and musically out of the world.
Its music is peppy and optimistic even in places where it could be sad. The story is a fairy tale but the characters convince you that it is entire plausible.
Danny Boyle's direction is awesome and the movie is definitely his vision. I have seen interviews of him on youtube about the movie and it is clear that "he gets it" :)
On a more painful note, the movie showed the VT (or CST) stations in Mumbai a lot. This is the Victoria Terminus (also now known as Chattrapati Shivaji Station) which was the target of the recent terrorist attack. That was a poignant thing which added topicality to the movie. But I appreciate the fact that there does not seem to be any playing up of that coinicidence (?) by the movie makers.
In terms of acting, I liked Freida Pinto, the kids who played Jamal, Salim and Latika. There was much less scope for showing the acting talent of Irrfan Khan and Anil Kapoor did a reasonably good job.
3 comments:
Interesting, I should watch it. Just caught something on TV about an arts project that invites 1 minute films from people in India, Pakistan, and the UK. Mainly about the diaspora. I watched a few of the movies, they looked pretty cool. The organisation sponsoring is called motiroti.
Your review reminded me of how the Bombay film industry makes very repetitive, unoriginal fare. So that's when I remembered these 1 minute films... just figured that the connection is not too obvious.
Hey Mosi,
Well this movie was in a way blend of Bombay film industry and the west or british movie industry i guess.
Well I agree that Bollywood dishes out what you and I consider repetitive and unoriginal, but bear in mind that you and I are usually not their target audience. Its the masses of India in the rural heartlands.
Ofcourse, I am not condescending when I say it. I think they are there for entertainment which they get from these movies. Once I removed this hyper critical eye, I started to enjoy them. Though I must admit that I was enjoying them even before :))
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