A Very ordinary movie or may be even less than ordinary...

Rating: 2/10 (15 June 2009)

When suddenly there came a phenomenon which proclaimed India's arrival at the world cinema stage , the cynic in me rubbished the whole thing as a gimmick. The credibility of the academy awards has taken a severe beating due to constant and regular stoop downs over the years.
Take for example Rocky (1976-77) or Training day .Please forgive me but i seriously have my doubts over the claim of Gandhi as an Oscar winner. A Beautiful Mind, American Beauty ....you name the movie and all that is there for us to see is mediocrity. mediocrity in direction,in screenplay writing and most importantly in characterisation and acting. Just like the mannerisms of Kingsley in Gandhi were hardly Indian Slumdog is hardly in touch with the reality which it wants to realistically potray. Firstly, Indians do not speak or talk or laugh or react the way they do in this movie. All their sensibilities, dialouges emotions and reactions are completely western. The movie is melodramatic to the point of being called bollywood jargon. I can bet my life on this that there have been brilliant Hindi movies with brilliant Hindi actors which should have won Oscars but didn't merely because the content they supplied was intrinsically Indian.I would like to compare Slumdog with Khosla ka Khosla . KKG is a new generation mainstream Hindi movie which quite realistically depicts the life of a middle class Indian and his family. their manner of speaking, laughing, their emotions are so honestly depicted that one cannot think otherwise.
Slumdog to be honest is a farce . Not only does it lack honesty but also credibility. It is a typical feel god movie with ordinary performances by most of the cast. Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto are not impressive at all. The success of Slumdog thus once again proves that the Americans cannot treat foreign cinema like it deserves to be. Unless a movie has been made in line with American sensibilities it won't succeed at their award ceremonies.