film of the year 2008

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2009)

The movie has already bagged 4 golden globe trophies & expectations are high to repeat the same history in coming Oscars. More than anyone else I'm happy to see the smiling face of British Director Danny Boyle.He is in his mid 60's & he always remains an underdog low budget filmmaker in Hollywood for years & this is his moment. It's his belief in the script (a novel named 'Q & A' written by Vikas Swarup, which even a few Indians have read so far) & his execution as a director which made the film a history. His best decision as a director is casting an assistant Indian co-director Loveleen Tondon & gave her full liberty of casting. And Loveleen has done brilliant casting to cater the world audience. Especially those slum children including child Jamaal. Apart of sound direction, the movie also scores points in screenplay & gripping editing. Not for a single minute I felt bore in the film.
The movie is a moving confession story of a Mumbai slum dweller boy named Jamaal who in the verge of winning a reality quiz show interrogated by the suspicious cops. How Jamaal knows the answers of all questions, how he won 20 million bucks & more importantly his lost love with a platform like this is thing to watch & cherish. The movie is totally Indian in look & partly in Hindi but it's the treatment of balancing fantasy of winning money with stark reality of slum life made it uplifting tale to admire. And it's this balance of film which has touched the right chords of abroad audience.
Our 'Madras Mozart' A R Rahman got world recognition on central stage winning golden globe trophy representing 1st ever Indian who won it & it's definitely moment of him too. But the score he gave in the film isn't his best one. All the Indian Rahman fans who have listened his music for years may feel the background score of the film a very normal score compared to his gr8 compositions & themes of last 18 years.
Talking about the performances its- Dev Patel & Freida Pinto steals the show with their promising debut performances. Rest of the Bollywood cast- Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Mahesh Manjrekar or Shaurabh Shukla maintained the nuanced performances assigned to them. But Anil has done exceptionally well with his cheer up anchor of the show with his trademark style. Anil is going to do a thrilling 2nd film with Danny Boyle in lead role. Hope Boyle can exploit well this genius screen legend of Bollywood.
Ratings- 8.5/10