Amazing Movie

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2009)

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, a slum dweller from Mumbai and his travails that culminates in him landing as the winner of 20 million rupees in a game show and eventually joining is true love.
As such, the movie is not a masterpiece or a piece of gem that has been conjured out of thin air. It is a Bollywood movie told Hollywood style.
What makes 'Slumdog Millionaire' stand apart is that it is not the run of the mill story that we have been used to over the years. Even in projection of the poverty and the way of life in slums, there is a celebration of the manner in which their conditions are portrayed rather than merely making an attempt to provoke and elicit sympathy of the viewers.
The big plus of the movie is its style of narration. Its racy, its engaging and it shifts from one frame to another so fast that your emotional curve will also keep hopping very quickly. Before you start to think of crying, you will be laughing, before you soak in the anguish of the pain or suffering of the characters, you will be intensely absorbed in what is about to unfold next.
The movie, as it is originally derived from Vikas Swarup's novel, is a kind of page turner. The editing, screenplay has been woven so well to suit the medium of cinema and keep the interest level of the audience very high without letting them droop even for one moment.
For all these reasons, Slumdog Millionaire is notable, yet it is these very reasons that don't make it a hardcore attempt at unraveling the layers of life of the Indian poor.
And for the argument of those who say it is a commercial potboiler that exploits the story of the slums to make moolah, they cannot be more wrong. Nowhere has there been an attempt made to glorify the life of its characters in a manner such that it would be deemed as exploitative.
Rahman's music is different and vibrant, but it is loud and glaring for the most part. Those who have been mesmerized by the dream music of Rahman will certainly feel it is not his best but who cares? Do the best works always fetch you awards? The awards are more of a recognition of Rahman's talent and it is high time the world took notice of the Mozart of Madras .
Cinematography is painstakingly beautiful and suits that vacillating pattern in which the story unfolds. There is one factor that has sat pretty well for the movie though no one will ever want to fathom that connection. Mumbai has been in the news after the 26/11 attacks and so a film with Mumbai as its soul is bound to grab everyone's attention and surely it has grabbed the eyeballs of the Oscar jury by its retina can I say? Everybody in the film has done their role neatly but the pick of the lot was the boy who played the youngest of Jamal, the protagonist of the movie. With his natural performance, abundance of energy and mischievous smile, he steals the show.
Go watch it, for it is path breaking in the sense that it will tell Bollywood film makers the way to tell enchanting stories minus the usual formula. Leave all your pretensions and see the film with an open mind and you are bound to enjoy it. After all who will not like to see the rise of an underdog?