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February 03 What's so millionaire about slumdog?After a fortnight of hype all around, from the media and friends who had already seen the movie "Slumdog Millionaire", I was still not well prepared for the movie.
"They have used poverty to showcase India to the world!" said an angry friend! I thought in my mind, so had Satyajit Ray through Pather Panchali, and it caught the fancy of the world! The Golden Globe awarded Rahman for his phenomenal music. Hearing the promos, I couldn't figure out why?! The world hasn't heard tracks from Roja, Dil Se or Bombay, I presumed! "The child actors are now demanding for a flat apart from the Rs. 1 lakh they were paid as renumeration!", blared the media! What is new...dont we have a famous proverb in most Indian languages about man wanting a foot when given an inch! 'But the actors are from the slums, why shouldnt they share in every possible way Boyle's glories?', I thought to myself. Hesitantly, I agreed to accept the movie as atreat from a friend on a Saturday matinee show!
From the first shot it had me spell bound and my two and a half year daughter too. The amateur camera work added real life drama to the introductory scenes of 'slumdogs' being chased across prohibited land, beside garbage laden canals and over tin shanties! Sitting in a US theatre, I could only imagine the impact the first few visuals of the movie would have on its audience, citizens of a country which creates more garbage than shown in the film, but has its sophisticated ways of hiding it in the closet! Dramatic, real, earthy, in your face...the intended effect was achieved, even for the Indian me, who had breezed into the AC theatre, a haven away from the dirty roads filled with traffic, people and beggars!
As the movie trailed through three generations of Jamal, the protagonist, rather crisscrossed between past and present, what shone through was the story and its telling. Simplistic as a plot, intricately but directly told, with an honesty bordering on naivity! Why did Lalita get physically brutalised by the goons that worked for her husband, or how Jamal could have conversations with her in their kitchen while her husband was watching TV by the side, defies logical explanations. These flaws were all masked by the metaphorical electric jolts, meant to numb the audience in disgust, horror or awe! Be it little Jamal's dive into a whirlpool of community poo, or the brutal blinding experiment on a little boy, or even the way Lalita and Jamal communicate on the phone, on national TV over the last question in the show! And yes, finally that is what SM is all about...about destined love reuniting surmounting all barriers! The winning of the Rs. 2 crores was merely an epitomised backdrop for the pricelessness of their true love.
In the end, SM is not about Rahman's ordinary music, nor is it about Danny Boyle's love of India! It is the story of Jamal and Lalita and the innocent purity of their love. Whether the judges at the GG realised this essence, is immaterial, because it is finally a story well told!
The official site: www.foxsearchlight.com/slumdogmillionaire
The trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIzbwV7on6Q
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