Slumdog Millionare
Freida Pinto, in one of the movies many awesome shots
It’s finally time for me to tackle this movie, but first, a little background is in order I think. I was born in India (though now living in Toronto), so i’ve had my fair share of exposure to Bollywood. And to be honest, I dislike most Bollywood movies. There’s plenty of things I don’t like about them; the fact that no movie really has a “genre”. A lot of Bollywood movie try to be a comedy, a drama an action movie, and a musical all rolled into one. I think I finally quit Bollywood movies after watching a Rickshaw chase a car in slow motion, then exploding. No seriously. I wish I was joking.
Of course, i’m not saying all Bollywood movies are like this, there are a few that I do like. The point is, this was the mindset I had when I watched Slumdog Millionare. I like knowing as little about a movie as possible before watching it, so I have very few expectations. And I was mostly impressed.
Slumdog Millionaire is not a Bollywood movie. The movie is based off the Book “Q & A” by Vikas Swarup. It’s directed by Danny Boyle, whom you’ll probably know from Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. The cast is all Indian, and fans of Indian movies will probably recognize familiar faces like Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan (The Namesake). There are no dance sequences except at the very end, which is amusingly satirical and runs through the credits.
Dev Patel and Anil Kapoor
The movie can best be described as a modern day fairytale. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) from the slums of India has the chance to become a millionaire through a gameshow where each of the questions reflects an important moment in his life. It’s a laughable premise, but it works. The host is played by Anil Kapoor, who does a great job as an egoistical self obessed celebrity doing his best to upstage Jamal while keeping his public appearance normal. The story mainly centers around the relationship between three people; Jamal, his brother Salim, and Latika, the love of Jamal’s life. It’s a story that is designed to continuously tug at the heartstrings. Seriously, Jamal can’t seem to take two steps without life throwing something at him to screw him up. But it never really becomes generic. Just as you think you can predict the movie, it throws something at you that makes you go…”wow”. The characters were probably the most generic thing about the movie. They were all giant cliches.
But the story wasn’t really the thing that impressed me the most. What did blow my mind was just how the movie was presented. Great editing, huge colours and fancy camerawork all go together to capture the pulsing heartbeat of Indian life. All the acting in the movie is great too. The only thing lacking was the chemistry between Jamal and Latika in their elder years. Their interaction seemed forced to me, and when they delivered their lines to each other it actually made me roll my eyes. Of course, that just might be me.
Talking of good acting, there’s this dude.
PURE SLIME
I’ve never seen a slimier character in a movie. This dude could give lessons on how to act like the biggest creep you’ve ever met. I really think they just picked up a random pedophile from the street and stuck him in this movie. I could write a whole other post on the aura of sliminess this guy gives off.
Oh, and finally, the music in this movie is great. It’s done by A.R. Rahman, who has done the music for every single Indian movie ever made since the beginning of time apparently. I don’t know how he finds the time.
One last thing, unrelated to the movie. I think you’ll have to inform me if you’ve left a comment, since each of my posts gets hit by around 70-80 spambots, so I just delete them whole without really looking at them.