Watch it at least once while you are still alive

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2008)

The movie has already earned a lot of praise,recognition and awards till now and hopefully will go a long way into becoming one of the most watched classics like 'GodFather','The Dark Knight',''Pulp Fiction',etc.
Being from the city Mumbai around which most of the movie revolves I can relate to the kind of philosophy this movie follows. It has got a lot of dark and ugly moments. But behind or inspite of these horrible aspects of life there are certain light and beautiful elements and characters that when discovered give hope that survival is possible even in the most unreasonable conditions. This is what makes disgusting look surprisingly awesome at times like many of the scenes in this movie.
One aspect of this movie is the literal story about a filthy and uneducated "Chaiwala" becoming a millionaire having to suffer an ordeal and his gruesome past with the lost love of his life. But there are many other aspects of this movie each telling their own story from the history of one of the toughest cities in the world to the scandals of child abuse and an apathetic system. In the midst of all of this you find the most unlikely thing called romance and its not as typical as your girl meets boy.
The director has done a good job at keeping the story as real as possible although it is just a work of fiction. In a sense many of the things in the movie do happen in a non-glamorous way in a normal Mumbaiites life. He has offered a glimpse in the psyche of some of those devastated by the workings of this city. This movie's success belongs to Danny Boyle because of the way each of its crucial scenes have been dramatised.
The actors look real too and apart from Anil Kapur and Irfann Khan, everyone is fresh in this movie. Most if not all have done a good job at depicting the directors vision. My only complain is that sometimes they do appear to be more sophisticated than the people whom they act as in the story the main reason being that English is largely used in this movie, understandably so to cater to international audiences.
But I want to clarify that people in India do speak English although not the uneducated especially those living a low life. Being an Indian I found it distracting at times that the actors were speaking in English ever so often because we are not used to seeing a character of an Indian policeman or a gangster speaking it let alone being fluent. Also this movie is not about Mumbai or India in general because we have a vast culture and this is just a dark variation of it.
Go ahead and watch this movie with or without expectations, you are going to be satisfied enough to watch it again some other time.