Slumdog Millionaire: My Review
Let me get it straight from the beginning. Slumdog is one of most over hyped movie I have ever seen. I still don’t understand what made it click with the Oscar jury.
But the movie does have its share of moments. And which movie doesn’t.
However, still it does not qualify to win 8 Oscars. Come on, Gladiator got only 5. The movie overall is pretty average. Even the music is pretty average too. Rehman has scored better music than this before. It is also not as if it is miles ahead than our current Bollywood movies. The only difference was that it was directed by a white director, and hence the movie was included in the mainstream category, rather than the foreign film category, into which the usual Indian movies are placed.
This post also reminds me of the review of the movie by Arindam Choudhary ( yeah the same guy with the pony tail, who runs full page ads for his institute IIPM). He was equating giving away Oscars to Slumdog, as imperialism. Oh god, now how could that be. Well he does support it with some interesting arguments. In the 90′s, he claims that when the big brands of cosmetics wanted to enter India in a big way, they pulled some strings and made three Indians win the coveted Miss Universe. Similarly, when the big film production companies like Warner Brothers, are planning to enter India in a big way, they too pull some strings and give away 8 Oscars to a largely Indian movie. Well don’t know about the authenticity of his arguments but it did give me some insights.
Not more than 3 on 5 from me for the movie. And, for the organizers for the Oscars, please put some strong hearted fellows on the jury, who don’t give in, seeing slums and poverty.
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i completely agree with u on this. over hyped movie catering to Western sensibilities. I garee that the sound mixing and the camera work was brilliant (though I thought the camerawork in Boyle’s Trainspotting was better). I have no problems with showing poverty. it’s a fact of life in India where about 70 percent of the population lives on less than Rs 20 a day. what I did have a problem with was that the director was evidently gloating at this poverty….I mean, the scene where the boy falls into deep shit (literally) was unnecessary. It didn’t contribute to the film or take the film forward.
U know the US is in the throes of what is likely to the worst recession in history.shares are down, unemployment is rising as is the number of homeless people. So, SD cheers Americans. i mean, they can always watch the movie and say, “Things are bad here….but not as bad as they are in India…..At least we have toilets here”!
I, for one, was completely unmoved by the film b’cos it had nothing new to show me. This is what we see in our lives everyday. But not so for the West amd hence the Oscars! And lesser said about the ‘acting’ by Frieda and Dev Patel the better.
If u want to see a good movie on slums, I’d reccommend Salaam Bombay anyday.
Chechi,I would like to know about ‘Salaam Bombay”,is it an old movie??
@lloyd well Salaam Bombay is a movie directed by Mira Nair… but i couldnt watch it yet..
happened to see an interview of the protagonist of the movie.. he got the national award for his role that year.. but look at the irony.. he is an auto driver now, here at bangalore..
Salaam Bombay, directed by Mira Nair, was the last film before Lagaan to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. I watched the film here at a film festival. Not too sure if the DVD is available here. But will certainly pass it on to u if I can get hold of it. It’s more realistic and hard hitting than SD and the children certainly don’t speak British English!
and Darshan, that’s news. sad to hear about the lead actor. But then, look at what’s happening to Rubina. Her father’s apparently trying to sell her!The kids were the real stars in the movie,. But look who walked away with all the fame and the money…Frieda Pinto, whose screen time in the movie is less than ten minutes!
well,
cant really complain about frieda walking away with most of commercials… come on.. she is more marketable than the kids… i mean those kids cant wear the high cost goods and they are less an appeal for cosmetics.. and definitely they cant induce any glamor in front of a ‘people”s magazine… there is a real psycology behind this… no one really cares about frieda… i mean i cant even rememebrer her looks.. i know she looks terrible… but all i care is.. when she endorses a brand.. i say ..”oh that brand had reaped in the slumdog factor”.. so u see the brand must have shelled a lot of money.. so it must be a good brand.. i mean.. even if frieda was disabled.., deaf and dumb.. still she would have got all those commercials…!!!
now, u really cant complain about the child actors much.. what do they get?? i mean have u looked at other film’s child actors?? they are grossly underpaid.. now these kids are fortunate enough to bask in the glory of the film.. they could go to places and even see the oscar and shake a leg with top stars in Hollywood.. i cant complain much.. yeah.. maybe a roof for them… but cmon..this film was about their slum.. people in usa have liked it because they saw something worse than their plight… and that brought them a little happiness in their otherwise recessed life.. and all this news of India emerging as superpower is also not in their good taste.. so they don’t care about the child actors.. no one does… U cant expect the world to care for our slums.. i mean we don’t care… why should we expect them to??
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