'Slumdog millionaire' has been in news for all the right reasons so far with clean sweep at golden globes and fuelling the expectations for a good number of oscar nominations. Critics over the world have gone ga-ga over the film. Unexpected comment comes from none other than but Mr Big B himself. I haven't read his blog so far but it has been reported that he isn't happy with the west associating India yet again with slums, its poverty and other depressing factors. My next post will be focussed on the arguement put forward by Mr. Bachhan. But in this post I'm solely focussed on the film itself. Here is the review of a film that has brought India its first ever Golden globe and making the world remember Mumbai's name for something else other than 26/11.
The film begins with Dev Patel looking helplessly at Saurabh Shukla as the latter billows out smoke of cigarette at him. A question appears on the screen asking how did Jamal Malik (Dev) end up winning 20 million followed by four different options. The very next scene shows Jamal being introduced on 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' by Prem Kapoor (Anil Kapoor) with the familiar music of KBC playing in the back ground. Next few scenes move quickly from the set of 'Who wants to....?' to the police station where Dev is being roughed up by Shukla. By the time the title of the film appears on the screen, U become curious enough to know what and why did it happen and this curiosity gets better of you. My friend Siddhartha finished downloading of this film at 3 at night. He played the movie to just check the quality of the film, ultimately getting into the bed only 122 minutes later. He was hooked to the movie, so were I and many others. This movie is indeed superb.
So what does work in this film? The major elements of the movie are not something we are unfamiliar with or have not been tried in any of the Hindi films before ( except for the game show thing). There's a long list including masterpieces like Satya, Parinda, Black friday, mediocre flicks like Vaastav and many duds which had these 3 common elements - Slums, gangsters and Mumbai. Danny Boyle himself had acknowledged this fact that he was inspired by few of these underworld oriented films. But the noteworthy thing is that these elements have been used as sub-plots. The movie essentially remains the story of an underdog (slumdog, as he is referred in the film) and his destiny as he makes a journey from the slums to one of the most coveted shows on the television.
The film never compromises on the pace, especially first 40 minutes are very much engrossing. The screenplay is brilliant as most of the time the film stays away from the cliche's and the stereotypes. The different elements have been blended very beautifully to make a coherent storyline. Another thing worth noting is that all the 3 stages of Jamal's life i.e. as a kid, then an adolescent and finally a young man have been given ample screentime. So this isn't just Dev Patel's film. It belongs to the other two actors too, especially the one who played the kid Jamal.
Every actor is perfect in his/her role. This is a kind of cinema where the film carries the actors along with it rather than vice-versa. A nomination in acting category seems unlikely but it doesn't takes anything away from the leading actors. They were all unknown to western audiences ( including our very own Anil Kapoor) but have been wooing people across the globe ever since the release of the movie.
But the film actually belongs to Danny Boyle(director) and Simon Beaufoy( writer) as well as the cinematographer. They have created a film the world is taking notice of including many bollywood themes in it with loads of drama and twists thrown in. At the end of the movie, the answer to the question asked in the very first scene appears on the screen. The same line holds true for this movie too. If this movie garners oscar nominations and eventually end up winning a few, this is all I would like to quote then - 'IT IS WRITTEN'
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