SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE REVIEW

The biggest problem with this movie is that it has won the Oscars and it is directed by a well known director from Hollywood. After seeing the movie I have come to the conclusion that if it was made by a Bollywood director with no firang connection at all, it would have hardly won, one or two awards in the filmfare that too after facing stiff competition from a Karan Johar or a Ramgopal Verma movie. If one has seen the other movies in contention for this year like ‘The curious case of Benjamin Button’ or ‘The Reader’, you cannot blame them for believing that the Oscars this year was horribly rigged. Trust me, I haven’t missed too many Oscar winning movies till date and this one was the biggest disappointment ever. After carefully considering all the prejudices that I have as an Indian audience, I still cannot digest the fact that it has actually swept the Oscars. It’s me who is either insane or the Oscars jury is. Either I am too naïve or ignorant to understand the greatness of the movie, or being painfully defensive who gets offended by anything that does not show my country in a positive light.

Let’s start with the target audience and the commercial aspect of the film. Well, one has to give credit to Boyle for this. He was spot on in choosing the mass audience. He made a gem of a movie to please his western counterparts just like Karan Johar or the Chopras does to please the college going spoilt brats. It seems that he knew well in advance the requirements of the Oscar committee this time around. The protagonist of the film, well his name is Jamal, a Muslim, lost his mother in a riot and guess what; you can actually see a glimpse of saffron cladded rioters in the background. If you are done with the predictability of this scene, then take this. A kid dressed as Lord Rama painted in blue with a bow and arrow in his hand stands as the sentinel of doom in the midst of the riot and manages to leave an indelible impression on Jamal’s young mind. If BJP comes into power don’t be surprised Mr.Boyle if you see a desi version of the film with young Jesus standing in the same manner in the midst of the Kandhamal riot. I agree with you Mr.Boyle that things like Rape, child prostitution, forced begging, slums and of course call centers are realities in India but the manner in which you have forced all of these into poor Jamal’s life makes me believe that you were trying to conform to the preconceived notions of your fellow countrymen .Now if this was not enough, why do you have to make the host of the show heartlessly mocking at Jamal for being a chaiwala.Ok I have to accept it as your tool for heightening the dramatic aspect of the movie. I have to accept that a 12 year old blind boy who begs for a living knows that a 100 dollar note has a picture of Benjamin Franklin on it. I have to also accept that Jamal with his background and upbringing knows who Samuel Colt is. I accept all of these with ease because I have also accepted that Sunny Deol can single handedly take on the Pakistan army, that Rajnikant can fight with a mob of 500 people with a towel in his hand. I am used to all these improbabilities that exist in the down-market Bollywood and Tollywood movies but I never knew that it is contagious, that one day it can infect Hollywood with such audacity. And guess what Simon Beaufoy gets the Oscars for best adapted screenplay, 2009, Incredible!!

Let’s come down to the casting of the film.Dev Patel as Jamal Malik was a little hard to digest, too British to portray a character from the Mumbai slums.Freida Pinto, too frigid to portray any emotions, Anil Kapoor too dramatic. The only saving grace was Irfan Khan as usual and the slum childrens.Now the music of the film and A.R.Rahman.Well I am sure Rahman must have laughed his heart out when he got the news of receiving the Oscar. For years he has created some incredible magic for the Indian audience and we still had the time and patience to listen to Anu Malik.And now just when he threw some garbage from his basket to the western world, look what they have done to it. The only uniqueness of the film was the usage of the game show device. It worked and it worked well for the film but come to think about it, any day Amitabh Bacchan and Siddharth Basu would have walked away with the Academy Award if there was a separate category for game shows in the Oscars.