The game begins!

Title:  Slumdog Millionaire

Director: Danny Boyle

Starring: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Irfan Khan, Freida Pinto, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, Ayush Mahesh, Khedekar, Mahesh Manjrekar

Length: 120 minutes

Describe the movie in one word - Interesting!

Plot: Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is a "chai waala" or a low class peon/tea distributor working in a call center in Mumbai India. As luck would have it, he makes it to the TV show "Who wants to be a millionaire" hosted by Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor). This uneducated, low class peon somehow answers all the questions correct and wins a cool 20 million rupees! Prem Kumar has him arrested by the police on suspicion of cheating in the show. Afterall how can this uneducated nobody from the slums of Mumbai know answers to these questions which lawyers, doctors, academics struggle to answer? The police uses third degree extreme torture on Jamal to get him to confess but he sticks to his story that he knew the answers. Inspector (Irfan Khan) begins a conversation with Jamal while playing the recorded show on the TV and Jamal begins to go through the story of his life. It is during this narration of his short life story that the inspector and the audience get to know how Jamal Malik this "slumdog" from Mumbai could answer all these questions.

My Psychobabble: Let me first begin by highlighting the book this movie is based on. This book is titled "Q & A" and the author is Vikas Swaroop. I read this book back in June 2008 and though this book is no literary masterpiece it definitely is a hell of a page turner! It is a shame the movie takes so little from the book and is only half as interesting.



Now to the movie. As I described in one word the movie definitely is interesting. It keeps you glued on your screen and there are times when the sheer excitement makes you clap your hands! But sadly this suspense is more because of the game "Who wants to be a millionaire" rather than the movie itself.

Which brings me to the direction.

I know this movie has bagged numerous awards and accolades all over the world but as an Indian watching this movie (which meant I could understand all the Hindi used) I have to say "Sorry world, you are seriously daft idiots if you think this movie is well directed." There are so many bloody obvious absolutely stupid directorial mistakes that I had my mouth shaped in the form of a big "O" while I watched the movie. Let me highlight the one that I think was the most prominent

Jamal and Salim (Jamal's elder brother) are about 6 years. They have run from Mumbai and talk to each other and the others using the typical slum dialect of Hindi. They sustain themselves by selling/stealing stuff on trains. During one such heist gone wrong both of them fall from the roof of a running train. Obviously they are enveloped in a cloud of dirt and smoke and as this cloud settles down suddenly they are about 10-11 year old and are now talking to each other in English! Remember those endless 1970s movie where the lead character used to mature 15 years while running on the road from police?

Now I am not going to go knitpicking here but the movie is riddled with such stupid directorial/editorial mistakes. It appears to me that Danny Boyle gulped a cocktail of B graded bollywood movies (possibly starring Mithun Da and Shatrughan Sinha) got high, read the book "Q&A" and came up with "Slumdog Millionaire" while still on a high!
Danny..clueless in India

If this movie truly deserves awards for something, it is its music. A.R. Rahman sir you truly are a maestro. I stand and applaud you sir. As an Indian you did us all proud. Hats off to you sir, hats off to you.

The actors are all good. Of course Irfan Khan, Saurabh Shukla and Anil Kapoor are some of our finest actors and they have all played their part brilliantly. Dev Patel has looked impressive as Jamal. Freida Pinto has only been passable in her portrayel of Latika. But then she has such a small part in the movie that it is insignificant anyways. I would however like to especially draw attention to Azharuddin (youngest Jamal) and Ayush (youngest Salim). These two young boys did an absolutely marvellous job. Good work boys! Hope we get to see more of you!


Verdict: Definitely a must watch if only due to its sheer plot. However as I mentioned, don't go expecting a flawless directorial masterpiece. The movie has its glaringly obvious mistakes and moments of sheer stupidity but those will not prevent you from enjoying it. I rate it as an interesting B grade Bollywood movie at best! The simple dance sequence at the end vindicates my observation. Also as a special mention to the entire controversy generated by Mr. Amitabh Bacchan's comments, I for the record truly agree with him.