Simply Me
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Slumdog Millionaire...
You know its going to be a memorable day when you call up a friend early in the morning to tell her its time to get up, we have a 8:45 A.M. movie to catch and the third sentence out of her muth for the day is 'Oh Sh..' (Well .. because she didn't complete the word... )
Having made plans to catch the early show, Purnima informed us that the movie would begin at 8:45 instead of 9 to make for Shraddha's penchant for being late... Hungry and half-asleep we reached the theatre... And with no trailers and standing up for the national anthem, the movie began...
Slumdog Millionaire is about a boy who grew up in the slums and went to the show 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' (Now that's a surprise... sorry for the spoiler)... Anyway, he is one question away from the final 20 million rupees question and he is put in a jail cell and tortured to find out how he really got to know all the answers...
The boy draws on all that life had taught him... from the kid dressed up as Ram when a communal war kills his mother... to the Colt that his brother wields after killing a big-time don... Life takes him from a normal slum boy (I am assuming that is normal what is shown) to an 'orphanage' to peddling in trains to pretending he is a guide to working in a Call Centre as an 'assistant.'
Three actors each play the three main characters at different ages... Jamal the almost millionaire; Salim his brother, who is protective of his brother, misled at times, generous at others, an opportunist at times and a religious murderer at others; Latika, the girl Jamal falls in love with and keeps finding and losing throughout the movie...
I agree the movie is very negative with all the bad experiences that can happen happening to the kids... but it also tells of how one brother tries to put his old life behind him and work at a Call Centre as a chaiwallah not the tele-operator and the other becomes a hired hand who works for a Don and does all the dirty work necessary... It tells a side of human nature when at the beginning of the show Anil Kapoor calls him the 'chai wallah' with disdain and later when he comes to money keeps addresing him as the 'Call Centre employee from amchi Mumbai'...
The only joys in Jamal's life are in the form of Latika whom he first loses back at the orphanage, then when again his brother takes her away from him and when he finally finds her again, the goons again part them...
As a movie, this is a definite watch... one time maybe... nothing specifically watch in a theatre about it... except that the background music is so amazing you HAVE to have a surround sound when watching the movie...
The most endearing character is little Jamal, a sweet, sensitive, caring, talented and actually Jamal's character is just plain lucky at times... Salim is realistic in that he would do anything to save his own hide, he is aggressive, loud mouthed, foul talking and more believable than Jamal's character when you hear Jamal's polished english... Latika actually an important character 'coz everything Jamal ever does is to find her... though you wouldn't necessarily guess that.
Watch it for entertainment... don't miss the beginning, its a short movie... it is in a way a masala movie... most importantly it is a different story... Listen to the background music... Its fast paced, so not a movie where you would pass too many comments... well executed and crisp...
I give it 4 stars... 1 for the background music, 1 for little Jamal and the rest to be divided among everything else in the movie... Watch it!!!
Having made plans to catch the early show, Purnima informed us that the movie would begin at 8:45 instead of 9 to make for Shraddha's penchant for being late... Hungry and half-asleep we reached the theatre... And with no trailers and standing up for the national anthem, the movie began...
Slumdog Millionaire is about a boy who grew up in the slums and went to the show 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' (Now that's a surprise... sorry for the spoiler)... Anyway, he is one question away from the final 20 million rupees question and he is put in a jail cell and tortured to find out how he really got to know all the answers...
The boy draws on all that life had taught him... from the kid dressed up as Ram when a communal war kills his mother... to the Colt that his brother wields after killing a big-time don... Life takes him from a normal slum boy (I am assuming that is normal what is shown) to an 'orphanage' to peddling in trains to pretending he is a guide to working in a Call Centre as an 'assistant.'
Three actors each play the three main characters at different ages... Jamal the almost millionaire; Salim his brother, who is protective of his brother, misled at times, generous at others, an opportunist at times and a religious murderer at others; Latika, the girl Jamal falls in love with and keeps finding and losing throughout the movie...
I agree the movie is very negative with all the bad experiences that can happen happening to the kids... but it also tells of how one brother tries to put his old life behind him and work at a Call Centre as a chaiwallah not the tele-operator and the other becomes a hired hand who works for a Don and does all the dirty work necessary... It tells a side of human nature when at the beginning of the show Anil Kapoor calls him the 'chai wallah' with disdain and later when he comes to money keeps addresing him as the 'Call Centre employee from amchi Mumbai'...
The only joys in Jamal's life are in the form of Latika whom he first loses back at the orphanage, then when again his brother takes her away from him and when he finally finds her again, the goons again part them...
As a movie, this is a definite watch... one time maybe... nothing specifically watch in a theatre about it... except that the background music is so amazing you HAVE to have a surround sound when watching the movie...
The most endearing character is little Jamal, a sweet, sensitive, caring, talented and actually Jamal's character is just plain lucky at times... Salim is realistic in that he would do anything to save his own hide, he is aggressive, loud mouthed, foul talking and more believable than Jamal's character when you hear Jamal's polished english... Latika actually an important character 'coz everything Jamal ever does is to find her... though you wouldn't necessarily guess that.
Watch it for entertainment... don't miss the beginning, its a short movie... it is in a way a masala movie... most importantly it is a different story... Listen to the background music... Its fast paced, so not a movie where you would pass too many comments... well executed and crisp...
I give it 4 stars... 1 for the background music, 1 for little Jamal and the rest to be divided among everything else in the movie... Watch it!!!
Labels: Jayenge hum to Bollywood...
posted by Tejaswini Shenoy at 12:14 AM
4 Comments:
yup exactly what I liked as a movie (if it would be) without the hype. But we enjoyed a lot more than the movie itself.. and shrads got some peace this time.
Well said... the girl does deserve some peace from non-stop commentary... How you could stay away from commenting was beyond me though :)
Didnt Jamal's Brit accent get on your nerves?
I wish Danny Boyle had used an Indian in that role. We speak English better than many brits themselves...
Very true Ajay... It sounded so strange... That was the most implausible part of that character...
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