A Good Film to Begin Understanding

Rating: 9/10 (26 June 2013)

There ought to be more films that do this. Good stories taking place with believable characters in lands that the rest of us are seldom exposed to. Yes, some aspects were a bit fantastic. But it showed us a different world, a different culture, new actors and characters who do not fit the Hollywood mold. This was original.
Well done on that count.
For many reasons, Hollywood does not portray the greater world that well. We do not get very much insight to foreign (non-Western, non-US) cultures. Which is a shame, because film exists to teach us so much, if we could figure out how to market it. Sometimes there are breakthroughs, and I think this is one of them.
When I was attending UCLA ten or more years ago as a graduate student (please do not pigeon hole me as pretentious for saying that), I began to believe that if a person was capable of understanding the sub-continent of India, then they could probably understand the complexity of the whole world.
This movie presents a beginning of that peek into a separate world that we all share.
What other Indian films (or rather, movies about India), give us any knowledge of it? The Jungle Book, A Passage to India, Gandhi, Patrick Swayze in the City of Joy. Usually the characters have a strong British influence, even Gandhi. The Jungle Book is mostly animals, some of whom represent more American jazz than anything from India.
There are authentic and classic Indian movies out there. I watched the Apu trilogy as a film student. And I am sure there are more recent Indian made serious and entertaining films today.
But a movie like "Slumdog Millionaire" breaks through the 3rd world wall, and helps us all see our planet more clearly.
I hope this would happen more often.
And very often, the same old actors are in the same old plot lines.
I know Tom Cruise and others of his ilk like to work, but do we always have to get the same ones? Money awaits. And this is an investment in many peoples' lives as much as one actor, I get that.
But our minds continue to atrophy while great scripts and world themed adventures flounder in the ether.
We need more like it, but different of course.