Terrbily over-hyped , here's the reason : Good in parts, pathetic in others -

Rating: 1/10 (15 January 2009)

Saw this movie because 1) I am an Indian 2) The then IMDb ranking was a #42 in the Top 250 films ever ! I was like wow... I should catch this.. only to be utterly disappointed at the end. The reasons are very simple.
If you're an international audience, i.e anyone not Indian, you would love this movie for it has so much of India in it , the poverty part of Mumbai/India especially and a novel way of explaining a related story of a TV show (Millionaire) so widely popular in the world.
The premise is brimming with potential. A slum kid rises above fate to win Kaun Banega Crorepati (Indian version of Millionaire) -- the sets are ditto, as is the background music for the show -- and the love of his life. He is helped by destiny, as each of the questions on the quiz show is linked to an event in his life. Wow.
On the other hand, if you're an Indian, 9 out of 10 chances that you would agree with the following :
The execution falls very flat because of two basic flaws: The language barrier, and a wishy washy Bollywood story line. Read on.
We flashback to the slum kid as a child diving into potty -- isn't once enough, given that Boyle's gritty and edgy Trainspotting featured such a nauseating scene too? -- to get Amitabh Bachchan's autograph. For all the Amitabh-crazed fans, maybe the mega-star does oblige children caked in excreta; be sure to try it the next time .
And then, the kids (who deliver heart-warming performances, faring way better than those who play their adult avatars) and his brother speak in Hindi, and suddenly when they turn adolescent they start talking in flawless English. Huh? Well that's because the film is meant for a world audience, and you can't have an entire film in subtitles, you might say. Fine, but then why do the police officers have to speak 'Indian' English and why does the 'slumdog' have an accent? And no, a semi-literate office help in a call center does not develop an accent.
In fact, a lot of the 'how he knows the answers' flashbacks are too contrived. Sample this, Jamal knows Samuel Colt invented the revolver because Salim got a gun -- it is never explained how -- and shot dead the vile man who heads the beggars' racket. In my hometown, the pistol goes by monikers like 'machine' in the netherworld; I doubt the average under-aged Mumbai underworld operative knows a Colt 45, or Samuel Colt. The first gun is usually what is called a 'country' revolver.
And then there is the stereotyped, half-baked, black and white characterization, almost bar none. For example, Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor ), the KBC host, is the typical villain who taunts the chai-wallah on his show; and the audience joins in with jeering laughter. Agreed, slum children get life's rawest deal, but not on live television. What is the director thinking ? No REALLY ! It is also not explained just why Prem goes after Jamal with such malice, beyond a muttered 'It's my show'.
I can go on and on -- like point out that call centers serving customers in Scotland don't keep telephone directories of Indian cities accessible at the click of a button, and that mobile phones are not listed in telephone directories yet (that's how Jamal finds his brother again) -- but the point is that Slumdog Millionaire is miles short of what I had expected it to be.
The really key events, the struggles of survival, are glossed over, and instead we get montage (albeit beautiful) shots hurrying towards a climax that leaves you untouched. A R Rahman's music is good, but not the master's best. But then, maybe on second hearing it will grow on you.
I have no problems with the 'West' taking up themes of poverty and highlighting the real India. I can completely understand a foreigner being obsessed with the filth and the poverty -- I too was stunned by the plight of the homeless in New York -- of India. I thought Slumdog is brilliantly shot, and I am willing to forgive Ram dressed as a mix between Shiva and Krishna in a foreign film.
But I do have a problem with a story that pretends to be real when in reality it is just a mas-ala film -- the kind we churn out by the dozens in Bollywood.
Yes, Slumdog Millionaire is just superficial fluff, mainly because of its gaping plot holes. It should have been much better researched, and they really should have stuck to one language.
Maybe the makers -- and half the world, apparently -- believe they have married Bollywood escapism with Western sensibilities, but it is not a match made in cinema heaven. It is more along the lines of 1970s Bollywood tear-jerker, the kind where the hero transforms from street urchin to gang lord in one running shot and where long-lost brothers are reunited by tattoos.
Blame it on the hype.