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Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Runtime : 120  Min.
Type of Movie : Drama
Language : English
Release date : 23/01/2009
Rating :
 
   
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  Posted on 11/27/2008 10:55:38 PM  by  sdsilent
By Robert Waldman

Remember the hoopla surrounding the Who Wants to Be A Millionaire television series? Less than five years ago that game show became a phenomena not only in North America but around the world, making a bigger household name of Regis Philbin. Chances are good that this show will gain even more converts after viewing Slumdog Millionaire, a wildly engaging drama from Fox Searchlight Films now striking a sympathetic chord at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas.

Wins at film festivals have been common for this widely acclaimed film. All the action here centres on Jamal Malik, a young worker from a high tech company who somehow becomes a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Most contestants who appear on this or any other television game show know what pressure is all about. Here, however, the pressure reaches the outer limits as this fish out of water player has an unbelievable story to tell.

Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) teams up with director Luveleen Tandan with support from Warner Brothers films to mount a truly impressive undertaking with masterful storytelling finesse. Danger surrounds the Indian version of the show with some coming to question just how a lowly Indian menial labourer could possibly know all the right answers on route to an unbelievably large jackpot, in the millions of rupees no less.

While the squeeze is put on Jamal we are inundated with flashbacks to his childhood to see how he came to his current predicament. As a child Jamal grew up with his brother Salim and mother in the slums of India and the boys underwent harsh treatment largely sometimes because of his faith. Unspeakable horrors confront both boys and those images and pent-up fears/hostilities have a clear impact on their teen years and adult lives. Love, romance and lust also enter into the equation as a young orphan named Latika seems to leave an indelible impression on the lads, and older grown ups as she ages.

Full of violence and tense moments Slumdog Millionaire comes up a winner, turning out to be one of the best movies of the year. Gorgeous cinematography of the Indian continent engulfs viewers. Chases through the slums of Calcutta add a more realistic feel to this movie that’s long on atmosphere and full of great performances that at times will make you weep or cringe. Various actors play the central characters through their lives but one must single out Dev Patel who lights up the screen as the sad-eyed Jamal, a man in love for years but not quite able to close the deal often through no fault of his own. And, in a stunning debut, Freida Pinto shines as Latika, the woman at the centre of much consternation in this story.

Remember also to stay for the credits as the filmmakers liven things up considerably after a two hour look into a very troubled family, some low-life criminals, and a game capable of turning us all on.

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Slumdog Millionaire Cast  
 
   

Mia Drake
Imran Hasnee
Faezeh Jalali
Anil Kapoor
Irrfan Khan
Saurabh Shukla
Madhur Mittal
Dev Patel
Freida Pinto
Shruti Seth
Anand Tiwari
 

Slumdog Millionaire Crew  
 
 
Director 
: Danny Boyle
: Loveleen Tandan
Writer 
: Simon Beaufoy
Producer 
: Christian Colson
: Ivana Mackinnon
: Tabrez Noorani
: Paul Ritchie
: Tessa Ross
: Paul Smith
Music Composer 
: A.R. Rahman
Cinematographer 
: Anthony Dod Mantle
Editor 
: Chris Dickens
Casting 
: Gail Stevens
: Loveleen Tandan
Production Design 
: Mark Digby
Costume Designer 
: Suttirat Anne Larlarb

Slumdog Millionaire Trivia  
 
 
The film is based on the bestselling novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup.


Production began in Mumbai in November 2007. After showings at various festivals, the film will have a limited release on November 12, 2008.


Companies such as Mercedes didnt mind having a gangster driving their cars, but objected to their products being shown in a slum setting. This forced the makers in post-production to remove logos digitally, costing "tens of thousands of pounds".


The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, and received very positive reviews. Boyle announced that he made minor edits before its screening at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival, where it went on to win the Cadillac Peoples Choice Award, voted on by festival audiences. Several prominent critics such as Roger Ebert have claimed that the film is a strong contender at the Academy Awards. It closed the London Film Festival next, on October 30 before its limited release.


After failing to find a suitable actor in India, Dev Patel was cast as the lead role, Jamal, after Danny Boyles daughter first saw him on the English TV show "Skins" (2007) and urged her father to take a look.


The actor whose autograph young Jamal gets is Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh Bachchan is a very real, and very famous Indian actor, the original host of the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire".


The cricket match being shown on television in Javeds house is the 1st one day international of the Future Cup between India and South Africa played at Civil Service Cricket Club, Stormont, Belfast on June 26 2007. As shown in the movie, Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian batsman, was run out on 99. India went on to score 242 and South Africa won the match by 4 wickets with 3 balls remaining.


Director Danny Boyle placed the money to be paid to the 3 lead child actors in a trust that is to be released to them upon their completion of grade school at 16 years of age. The production company has set up for an auto-rikshaw driver to take the kids to school everyday until they are 16 years old.


Chris Tarrant, the host of the UK version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire featured in Danny Boyles debut film Shallow Grave (1995). He appears as the host of another TV quiz show Lose A Million but only on a TV screen.

 
Slumdog Millionaire Media Reviews  
 
 
IMDB
What a fun movie this was! The images are lush with the color and grit of a poverty-stricken Mumbai, India. The overall structure of the film was refreshing -- our hero, Jamal, has been accused of cheating on the popular show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." Having grown up an uneducated, homeless, orphan the police find it hard to believe he could possibly answer so many obscure trivia questions correctly. Jamal claims that his life experience taught him lessons that, at least in the context of the chosen game show questions, served him as well as a formal education. The police inspector has a video of the show and as Jamal explains question by question how he knew the answers... the audience learns the story of his life through flashbacks.

The film vibrates off the screen with a texture and realism that could only be captured on- location in India. Ive never been to south Asia, but a couple years ago I saw a film about a group of impoverished Indian children called "Born Into Brothels," which won the Oscar that year for Best Documentary. The documentary was shot on video and revealed a world unlike anything Id ever seen before. "Slum Dog Millionaire" is pure fiction, but Boyle and company have truly captured the vibrancy, the movement, and the indelible hope that can be seen reflected in the eyes of children growing up in destitute poverty the world over.

The youngsters who play Jamal, his brother Salim, and Latika (Jamals childhood sweetheart) are some of the best child performances Ive ever seen on film. The child who plays the youngest incarnation of Jamal is nothing short of a miracle in my opinion. Even more surprising is the revelation that these kids are not actors, but were plucked from slums not unlike the ones depicted in the film.

The best part of the film are the flashback sequences-- they have a life of their own thanks to some incredible cinematography, a pulsating soundtrack, funny writing, and great performances. The game show sequences do their job, despite being over-simplified -- Anil Kapoor, who plays a mean-spirited Meredith Viera, slithers through his scenes with slimy finesse. Hes even able to pull off a ridiculous scene in a bathroom where his character tries to manipulate Jamal. I just found it distracting that this opportunity would even present itself. But thats just me.

As for the latter part of the film, it fails to live up to the promise of the beginning. The weakest part is a love story that seems oddly forced/clichéd given the other strengths of the storyline. I suppose its not really an Indian film if its not about love, but from the start this film seemed to be about the relationship between the two brothers. I couldnt help but feel like there was some opportunity lost to tell a different, more interesting story there.

Dev Patel (from the terrific BBC show "Skins") plays the oldest Jamal and does a solid job. His appealing innocence is what makes us care about him from the first moment we see him. Unfortunately by the end, its that same innocence that makes it hard to buy that he experienced the difficult life thats been revealed to us over the course of the movie. The beautiful Frieda Pinto (who plays the oldest incarnation of Latika) has a similar problem. Shes given even less acting to do, but pulls off the damsel in distress role as well as anybody. The ending falls flat in a final game show sequence that is notable for its complete lack of suspense. We have a trivia question the western audience knows the answer to, and the wrapping up of a storyline that we see coming from 30 minutes away.

In the final 15 minutes, things are unraveling quickly, and yet Boyle saves the ending by doing away with the predictable "guy gets rich, gets girl, and drives off into the sunset" motif. Instead Boyle keeps it simple and stays true to the world he did such an impeccable job creating. And to seal the deal? A marvelous Bollywood dance send up during the ending credits. This ending sequence is so much fun and leaves us, not thinking about the films shortcomings, but rather with the memory of all there is to LOVE about this movie: Energy, color, and optimism in the midst of very harsh world.



Wikipedia
Slumdog Millionaire was scripted by Simon Beaufoy, who had written the script for The Full Monty (1997), which was one of director Danny Boyles favorite British films. The script is based on the bestselling novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup. Though the scripts byline about a Hindi kid winning the local version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? did not appeal to Boyle at first, he read the script out of respect for Beaufoy. The director was entranced by the script, particularly the implementation of the extraordinarily difficult Hindi version of the game show compared to the American and British versions. Boyle also called the script a "love story," since the streetkid who goes on the game show had lost his girlfriend in Mumbai and finds that the only way to reach her is to appear on the show, which she watches religiously. By August 2007, the companies Celador Films and Film4 greenlit Slumdog Millionaire, with Fox Searchlight Pictures and Pathé taking up the American and international rights respectively, with Danny Boyle directing and British actor Dev Patel cast into the lead role as the Indian streetkid. Boyle also entered talks with actor Shahrukh Khan for the film as the game show host, but Anil Kapoor took the role instead. The companies fully financed the production, which began on November 5, 2007 in Mumbai. Boyle worked with regular collaborators as well as an Indian crew in the country. The director filmed partly in Hindi and mostly in English, having expressed his love for Hinglish films as the influence. The film was co-directed by Loveleen Tandan who had earlier cast films like "Monsoon Wedding" and "Brick Lane."

The films music has been composed by the Indian music composer A. R. Rahman. There is a song during the end credits where the entire cast breaks out into a dance number, which has already become an instant hit with the critics. Rahman has collaborated with M.I.A. on a song ("O...Saya") for the score, which also features her single "Paper Planes." In a CBC interview, the director Danny Boyle says she was a "gift" to the projects soundtrack stating "We asked her if shed come and sing on one of these songs - Its lovely the way these things arrive, and extraordinary how they work out." Boyle calls the music the best part of the film in his interview to The Wall Street Journal website livemint.com.



rollingstone.com
What I feel for this movie isnt just admiration, its mad love. And I couldnt be more surprised. The plot reeks of uplift: An illiterate slum kid from Mumbai goes on the local TV version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and comes off like a brainiac. Who wants to see that? Final answer: You do. Slumdog Millionaire has the goods to bust out as a scrappy contender in the Oscar race. Its modern India standing in for a world in full economic spin. Its an explosion of color and light with the darkness ever ready to invade. Its a family film of shocking brutality, a romance haunted by sexual abuse, a fantasy of wealth fueled by crushing poverty.

You wont find many fairy tales that open with a graphic torture scene. The cops think 18-year-old Jamal Malik (a sensational Dev Patel) is a fraud. Goaded by the shows host (the superb Anil Kapoor), the police inspector (Irrfan Khan) is determined to beat the truth out of Jamal before he goes back on the show and hits thejackpot of 20 million rupees. Presumably this is not the way Regis Philbin ran things when the show hit America in 1999.

Brimming with humor and heartbreak, Slumdog Millionaire meets at the border of art and commerce and lets one flow into the other as if that were the natural order of things. Sweet. Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) brings focus to Q & A, the episodic Vikas Swarup novel on which the film is based. Still, the MVP here is Danny Boyle, who directs the film brilliantly. Boyle is the Irish-Catholic working-class Brit who put his surreal mark on zombies (28 Days Later) and smack addicts (Trainspotting), and made us see ourselves in their blood wars. Those movies were so potent, as was his 1994 debut, Shallow Grave, that we looked the other way when Boyle went Hollywood with The Beach and screwed up with A Life Less Ordinary. Somehow we knew that Boyle had the stuff to work miracles.

Heres the proof. We learn the history of Jamal and the other principal characters in flashbacks, as Jamal answers questions on the TV show not from book knowledge — he has none — but his own life experiences. Jamal is searching for two people from his childhood: his wild older brother Salim (an outstanding Madhur Mittal), now a thief and killer, and his adored Latika (the achingly lovely Freida Pinto), now stepping up from child prostitute to plaything of a gangster. Every incident, including the brothers watching their mother die in an anti-Muslim riot, feeds into Jamals answers on the show. OK, the concept bends coincidence to the breaking point. But Jamals traumatic youth is his lifeline. Boyle makes magic realism part of the films fabric, the essential part that lets in hope without compromising integrity.

Anthony Dod Mantle uses compact digital cameras to move with speed and stealth through the slums and palaces of Mumbai. The film is a visual wonder, propelled by A.R. Rahmans hip-hopping score and Chris Dickens kinetic editing. The whoosh of action and romance pulls you in, but its the bruised characters who hold you there. Every step Jamal takes toward his final answer could get him killed. Even in the Bollywood musical number that ends the film, joy and pain are still joined in the dance. The no-bull honesty of Slumdog Millionaire hits you hard. Its the real deal. No cheating.



rogerebert.suntimes.com
Danny Boyles "Slumdog Millionaire" hits the ground running. This is a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating at the same time, about a Mumbai orphan who rises from rags to riches on the strength of his lively intelligence. The films universal appeal will present the real India to millions of moviegoers for the first time.

The real India, supercharged with a plot as reliable and eternal as the hills. The films surface is so dazzling that you hardly realize how traditional it is underneath. But its the buried structure that pulls us through the story like a big engine on a short train.

By the real India, I dont mean an unblinking documentary like Louis Malles "Calcutta" or the recent "Born Into Brothels." I mean the real India of social levels that seem to be separated by centuries. What do people think of when they think of India? On the one hand, Mother Teresa, "Salaam Bombay!" and the wretched of the earth. On the other, the "Masterpiece Theater"-style images of "A Passage to India," "Gandhi" and "The Jewel in the Crown."

"Slumdog Millionaire" bridges these two Indias by cutting between a world of poverty and the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." It tells the story of an orphan from the slums of Mumbai who is born into a brutal existence. A petty thief, impostor and survivor, mired in dire poverty, he improvises his way up through the world and remembers everything he has learned.

His name is Jamel (played as a teenager by Dev Patel). He is Oliver Twist. High-spirited and defiant in the worst of times, he survives. He scrapes out a living at the Taj Mahal, which he did not know about but discovers by being thrown off a train. He pretends to be a guide, invents "facts" out of thin air, advises tourists to remove their shoes and then steals them. He finds a bit part in the Mumbai underworld, and even falls in idealized romantic love, that most elusive of conditions for a slumdog.

His life until he is 20 is told in flashbacks intercut with his appearance as a quiz show contestant. Pitched as a slumdog, he supplies the correct answer to question after question and becomes a national hero. The flashbacks show why he knows the answers. He doesnt volunteer this information. It is beaten out of him by the shows security staff. They are sure he must be cheating.

The film uses dazzling cinematography, breathless editing, driving music and headlong momentum to explode with narrative force, stirring in a romance at the same time. For Danny Boyle, it is a personal triumph. He combines the suspense of a game show with the vision and energy of "City of God" and never stops sprinting.

When I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" at Toronto, I was witnessing a phenomenon: dramatic proof that a movie is about how it tells itself. I walked out of the theater and flatly predicted it would win the Audience Award. Seven days later, it did. And that it could land a best picture Oscar nomination. We will see. It is one of those miraculous entertainments that achieves its immediate goals and keeps climbing toward a higher summit.

The India of Mother Teresa still exists. Because it is side-by-side with the new India, it is easily seen. People living in the streets. A woman crawling from a cardboard box. Men bathing at a fire hydrant. Men relieving themselves by the roadside. You stand on one side of the Hooghly River, a branch of the Ganges that runs through Kolkuta, and your friend tells you, "On the other bank millions of people live without a single sewer line."

On the other hand, the worlds largest middle class, mostly lower-middle, but all the more admirable. The India of "Monsoon Wedding." Millionaires. Mercedes-Benzes and Audis. Traffic like Demo Derby. Luxury condos. Exploding education. A booming computer segment. A fountain of medical professionals. Some of the most exciting modern English literature. A Bollywood to rival Hollywood.

 
 
Slumdog Millionaire Comments  
 
 
 
 
 AVERAGE USER REVIEWS
  
 20 Reviews so far 
 
 
 Posted on 12/20/2008 4:00:18 PM by William Keating
  
 
   
Interesting trivia factoid; the knife scar on Latika's face changes from left side to right in several scenes.
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/9/2009 10:28:07 PM by gimme_5
  
 
   
I just saw the film, and thought it was amazing! The cinematography and colors were so vivid, and the characters, especially the young boys, incredible. While I can appreciate the reviewer’s comments on IEH, it doesn’t diminish from an overall incredibly enjoyable immersion into the slums of India, and who would have thought that would be a vibrant journey that makes you long for more! I may have to check out Bollywood now…
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/9/2009 10:34:26 PM by garry steel
  
 
   
Danny Boyle’s latest offering, Slumdog Millionaire, is generating a fair amount of buzz!!!Slumdog Millionaire follows the story of Jamal Malik, an unlikely winner of India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Jamal, his brother Samir, and fellow orphan Latika, manage to survive an almost absurd number of scrapes, the memory of each one coincidentally providing Jamal with answers to the game show questions. The film is big, fast, fun, and colorful, but ultimately a mess.
Slumdog Millionaire is not without merit. It’s nothing if not an ambitious film, and certain scenes do work well. But ultimately it’s an annoying cacophony atop a predictable structure.
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/9/2009 10:36:35 PM by ankit
  
 
   
garry you clearly don’t seem to have any clue about india or in particular, mumbai.. you need to get of your air-conditioned office… take a week long trip to mumbai and then watch the movie again.
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/9/2009 10:38:46 PM by paddy
  
 
   
garry kevin , i think you have no knowledge of being a movie reviewer.
Just watch the movie and its great.You might have some problem,contact your doctor soon. This is a awesome movie. Story might be from india but its for everyone. I am sure its going to get nomination for oscars.
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/9/2009 10:38:58 PM by paddy
  
 
   
garry , i think you have no knowledge of being a movie reviewer.
Just watch the movie and its great.You might have some problem,contact your doctor soon. This is a awesome movie. Story might be from india but its for everyone. I am sure its going to get nomination for oscars.
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/9/2009 10:43:49 PM by joydeep
  
 
   
Thank YoU!!
i m agree with paddy,the movie is brilliant. boyle’s juxtaposition of a typical poor Indian life with a modern game show captures the complications and paradoxes of modernity perfectly.
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/11/2009 5:40:55 PM by Rom
  
 
   
ROTTEN BOILED EGG TOUR OF TAJ MAHAL

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Director: Danny Boyle

If you thought Bolly made senseless formulaic pastiches then go watch this patronising and condescending disjointed pot boiler fro Danny the boiler who makes the narrative jump giddily from one gutter to another.
He cannot even stage a convincing anti Muslim riot and the street kids look like a parody of Mira Nairs Salaam Bombay with the worst dialogue delivery I have seen in a recent movie.

I think he saw Nihalinis Dev and Nairs Salaam Bomay and then had a vision to mix it with fineness quiz show. But this is a dreadfully bemusing and flawed look where two kids fall off the roof of a speeding train conveniently in the front yard of Taj Mahal without enduring a single bruise and then start giving intro tours to obese western tourists in English language while they have never attended a day of even a slum school.

This is Indian massala gone wrong with item songs in the most inappropriate places like the Mumbai central and colours which are as gaudy as holi gone astray, the high-rises and trains are all shot by a cameraman with angles which make one suspicious the technician was cross eyed or suffering from a hangover.

The direction looks as if Boyle was stoned because India has dirt cheap cannabis and all Indians are portrayed as callous cheating contemptuous cultural buffoons, they abuse and disfigure kids who go around shooting gang dons point blank and the mobiles never seem to stop ringing.

Was it meant to be surreal or a satire as it comes out as a superfluous self indulgent look at the Indian culture which is as dull and technically flawed as Brick Lane if not worst, the lurid plot of two brothers who dream of riches and the fairy tale setting of who wants to be a millionaire is just as despicable as the consumer market in its worst metaphor but the script is just as schizoid as it forces clueless and tasteless jokes without context into a ludicrous tale.

The chat between the anchor and the contestant in men’s room is so badly staged it was worst then the excretions being emitted, while the semi winner is flagged for fraud and tortured by a caricature cop played by Irfan Khan he tells us his autobiography which is as bizarrely implausible as the most melodramatic and misplaced Bolly drama possible to conceive.

Next time please study ivory’s Indian endeavours and leans passage to India before indulging in a clinched contemptuous look at India
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/12/2009 9:29:59 AM by Mullick
  
 
   
Simply fantastic.
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/14/2009 12:09:35 AM by Shabeel
  
 
   
Speachless
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/17/2009 7:07:56 AM by dpk
  
 
   
a movie with a good story and music and acting. full marks to director and A R rehman. But not a movie to watch at home because of too slangs(made*****) used in the film. I am not sure what they wanted to say by introducing such words. apart from these the movie was too good.
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/30/2009 4:38:07 AM by Sambit from India
  
 
   
Scenes of poverty and squalour may appear romantic to Westerners and to our snooty elite but for ordinary Indians they are nothing new. They are an everyday reality. However, one wonders what sort of mind can find such images aesthetically pleasing. Party-hopping socialites (for example, Shobhaa De after all her bombast of "enough is enough" after the Mumbai attack, went and watched a pirated copy!) who are distanced from such reality may find this film an "eye-opener" but for us it IS just poverty-porn. It IS just slum- voyeurism. Leaving that aside, I have eight other objections to the film.
1) The director seems to RELISH showing violence. Some of it (like the police-torture) is quite needless. And why was the boy arrested in the first place? On what charge? Was it realistic?
2) How can a boy growing up in slums speak such accented English? Even if one assumes that the language he actually uses to communicate with the game-show host and the police officer is Hindi (granting the director the creative license to use a language better suited for international audiences), there are 2 instances where it is stretched too far: (a) when the boy becomes a ‘guide’ for foreign tourists at the Taj Mahal & (b) when he becomes a substitute-operator at the call-centre.
3) When the boy uses his ‘lifeline’ during the game-show, his friend discovers that she has forgotten her mobile and has to run back for it. This is plain Bollywood masala! Did the director HAVE to make it so melodramatic?
4) How did the boy know who invented the revolver just by watching his brother use it?
How does his friend know about Benjamin Franklin?
5) “Darshan Do Ghanshyam” is NOT written by Surdas. It is written by Gopal Singh Nepali for the movie Narsi Bhagat (1957). This song is also credited as traditional and originally written by 15th century poet Narsi Mehta, whose life that film is based on.
6) After winning the game-show, the boy sits on the railway platform and nobody recognizes him! Considering the popularity of the show, is that realistic?
7) Two glaring omissions: To get invited to the show one has to answer several GK questions over phone or Internet. Even after making it to the show, a contestant can reach the hot-seat, only after qualifying through “fastest finger first”. All this is conveniently forgotten in the film.
8) And of course the greatest flaw in the storyline: programmes like 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' and 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' are NOT telecas
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/30/2009 4:39:55 AM by Sambit
  
 
   
8) And of course the greatest flaw in the storyline: programmes like 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' and 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' are NOT telecast live. As a result the entire structure of the film becomes unrealistic. For a film that boasts of being realistic such a flaw cannot be overlooked.
Anyone else wants to say this is a g-r-e-a-t film despite all these flaws?
 
   
 
 Posted on 1/30/2009 7:10:38 AM by Rishi Raj Manglesh
  
 
   
Not worth the HYPE for an average Indian!

Looking at the reactions in the west, I was waiting for quite a while for release of slumdog millionaire in India. For average Indian moviegoer it's a trash although it’s a above average movie definitely not for Oscars.

I don't understand why! In West dirt and filth and poverty are always in demand although everybody knows most of the world lives in poor and emerging countries. Danny has served the darkest part of India and I think he has ensured that all evils in our society are served in the platter.

Cast and soundtrack are best part of the movie. I think Rehman has much better work to his credit in homegrown movies but he never disappoints.

I hope next time, if somebody wants to project India on screen, they can work on the energetic and vibrant Indian culture and an independent spirit so that it could do justice with Indian image which is distorted to such a material pessimism.
 
   
 
 Posted on 2/9/2009 7:42:19 AM by Jim T - Sydney
  
 
   
Slum Dog Millionaire is the best film I have ever seen and goes straight to # 1 in my top 100 list. It is in my opinion the first truely 21st century film. The screenplay and acting are incredible. The juxtaposition between 3 different subplots, abject poverty and salvation by wealth are incredible. The cinematography and visual manipulations are masterful and totally underpin the emotional experienec of the entire film. The call centre scenes remind everyone in the west of what repluses us about them, yet they are still a triumph. Yes it is a love story and many other simple things, but is also a masterwork. The music is fabulous and the end credits a sheer delight. SEE IT & stop complaining and moralising. Slums do exist, so do call centres and love triumphs all.
 
   
 
 Posted on 2/9/2009 8:16:20 AM by James R - Perth Australia
  
 
   
I am appalled and saddened by the narrow minded and parochial comments in particular from people in India posted on this site about Slum Dog Millionaire. The fact that India has vast dirty squalid slums is just that - a fact. To show them and explore them in such a fast paced atristic context is a revelation to everyone in the west, let me assure you. There is not one thing to be ashamed of that is shown and highlighted in the film. India is an aspirational 3rd world country, emerging rapidly as a growing economy. It is the ecclectic mix of beliefs, religion, violence, povery, music, culture, history and wealth that makes India what it is. There is no hiding from this. Slum Dog Millionaire is not a documentary. It is a fantasy!! Get it! It is briliant entertainment that holds up a mirror to us all, framed around a love story. The objections listed above are ridiculous. Any Indian person who can not plainly see that this film is a masterwork, an act of genious, a dark hearted and uplifting relevaltion of all that is GOOD and BAD about India, is missing the point. It is just a story made with brilliant artistic license. It is not FACT. This film will win many awards wolrdwide and should also win Academy Awards in the US for Best Film, Best Actor(s), Best Music, Best Editing and Best Cineatography to name a few. And while I am on this, the thing that rupluses most westeners is not the slums, the violence or the shit the young Jamahl falls into.......no not at all. The thing that repulses us most is the cruelty of the acid burnt beggar eyes, the child slavery and the appaling call centres. Westerners have to suffer fake and bogus calls from indian Call centres from people who are pretending to be something they are not in a place that they are not. Indian call centre workers are nothing more than slave labourers, making their Indian masters fat and rich at their impoverished expense. The dark mood and crammed nature of the call center scenes in the film are another stark Indian reality. To any western person, they are also a "slum". A slum for workers. The capitalist exploitation by Indian companies and worse the western companies who fund them is horrific. There is nothing heroic about working in a call centre, but there is everything heroic in surving within and beyond a real slum. This is the triumph of the film. Love conquers all. Every country has a dark side. Every country has poverty, every country has crime and a side it would rather PRETEND was n
 
   
 
 Posted on 2/9/2009 8:24:01 AM by Terry Thompson USA
  
 
   
For anyone in India, who is complaining about Slum Dog Millionaire, there is one simple fact you need to face. Slum Dog is brilliant and EVERYONE around the world will go to see it. No other indian film has ever had the audience or penetration this film will have. Nothing Bollywood has ever made would even see the light of day outside India......yet Slum Dog already has worldwide audiences in the millions. So why is that? Same country, same actors, same music.....but something is different. India, be proud. Only such a masterpice could be made in India. That is the magic of it. The film is a big hit. Love it or hate it sure, but just do not deny it!
 
   
 
 Posted on 2/22/2009 9:26:26 PM by Vinodh
  
 
   
@ James R - Perth That was a fantastic comment. I am from India and i second You. We people in India will not accept reality, which was so poignant in Boyle's portrayal. I just loved the movie. Fabulous.
 
   
 
 Posted on 4/10/2009 11:46:34 AM by Rico
  
 
   
1) The director seems to RELISH showing violence.... Was it realistic?
It's a fantasy movie, it never sells itself as a true to life.
2) How can a boy growing up in slums speak such accented English?
How can an alien from Krypton knows how to fly on earth?
3) When the boy uses his ‘lifeline’ during the game-show, his friend discovers that she has forgotten her mobile and has to run back for it. This is plain Bollywood masala! Did the director HAVE to make it so melodramatic?
I guess so, he wanted to please his audiences, and obviously you are not one of them.
4) How did the boy know who invented the revolver just by watching his brother use it?
Maybe his brother told him about it???
How does his friend know about Benjamin Franklin?
Someone told his friend about it too.
5) “Darshan Do Ghanshyam” is NOT written by Surdas. It is written by Gopal Singh Nepali for the movie Narsi Bhagat (1957). This song is also credited as traditional and originally written by 15th century poet Narsi Mehta, whose life that film is based on.
So?
6) After winning the game-show, the boy sits on the railway platform and nobody recognizes him! Considering the popularity of the show, is that realistic?
It was already dark, and everyone was already hurrying home after watching an exciting game show.
7) Two glaring omissions: To get invited to the show one has to answer several GK questions over phone or Internet. Even after making it to the show, a contestant can reach the hot-seat, only after qualifying through “fastest finger first”. All this is conveniently forgotten in the film.
If these omissions are to be included, the movie will be too long and could become a drag. It's called editing.
8) And of course the greatest flaw in the storyline: programmes like 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' and 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' are NOT telecast live...
SAme answer to question number 1.
 
   
 
 Posted on 6/15/2009 5:07:29 AM by karan
  
 
   
ek dam faltu film hai oscar kaise mil gaya bhagwan jane.aise film ko utha kar gatar me fek dene chahiye
 
   

 
 
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