I had read about Slumdog Millionaire when they had screened it at the Dubai Intl Film Festival. I downloaded this film and watched it a few weeks back. Although it was a fun film, I cannot for the life of me imagine why this film won the best film Golden Globe and why it is nominated for the best picture film at the Oscars.
True, I haven't watched all the other films that have been nominated or that have been omitted, but anyone who has watched slumdog will agree with me on a few points.
1. The acting/ dialog delivery was sub-par. Dev Patel was not at all apt for this role. If you look at actors like Ben Kingsley, Russell Crowe, Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, etc etc.... all have had impeccable dialog delivery and accents in their films, whether they had to play a Mahatma Gandhi, a gun slinger in Arizona, a Publicity Agent, a Stepford wife, French Royalty or even a bunch of Pirates. Dev Patel did not look or sound at all like anyone who has lived in Indian slums his whole life.
2. The story....OMFG....What slum kid who gets a gun says "The man with the Colt 45 says shut up"??? - And from that incident, Jamal figured that Samuel Colt invented the revolver??? (The "gunmaster G-9" bit was genius, albeit a bit much... considering that you need to be a mithun fan to know about that.)
Apart from that, the blind beggar boy identifying the 100$ note... yea right! The KBC host making fun of a chai-walla on air - a bit much to believe. In understand the aim was to make the audience hate Anil Kapoor's character, but it can be done in other ways.
I guess there are many ways to poke holes in this film. Lets get tot he bottomline. Does it entertain? Yes it does. But when you watch even fantasy films like Pirates of the Caribbean, or The Dark Knight, you realise that actors in "non-real" films make so much of an effort to be true to the character, and a slumdog millionaire gets nominated for an oscar for that sub-par execution and acting. If you look at the other films that got nominated - Frost/Nixon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, The Reader, you will notice that all of these films has a best actor or best actress nomination. Some awesome films like The Dark Knight, Revolutionary Road, Changeling, The Wrestler have been left out from the best picture category and it is really appalling to see Slumdog get a nomination while these other are left out.
With all due respect to ARR, the music of Slumdog is barely average. His work in Hindi and Tamil films has been miles ahead of the stuff he has done here. Even in this category, the Academy managed to leave out the Bruce Springsteen song from "The Wrestler".
I must admit, I have not seen all the films mentioned above, but I will have watched them all by this weekend. And if I stand corrected after that, I shall post again and hail Slumdog as the king. As of now, I feel changeling is miles ahead of slumdog.
An afterthought to the post - WTF was the bollywood song & Dance picturisation of Jai Ho all about??
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Finally there's someone who shares my opinion on this movie! Looks like everyone else in the world, except for Indians, is appreciating this movie that apparently showcases the 'real' face of India. It was so funny when a Canadian(foreigner,not NRI)friend of mine told me over a month back how he liked this movie, and asked me to watch it myself! Oh boy.
But hey ho, ho hey, not a word against my Rehman k? O-saya is really good, although I'm not as much impressed by Jai Ho. But as long as he's getting Oscar nominations(better still, the Oscars themselves), I'm gonna listen to whatever he composes and appreciate it! Go Rehman! :D
Hey... i'll be the first to admit that Rahman is God. I have the entire Slumdog soundtrack and frankly, he has done stuff like Roja, Bombay, Dil Se, Saathiya, Swades... apart from Tamil gems like Kaadhalan, Thiruda Thiruda, May Maadham... and all of these, leave Slumdog in the dust.
"real face of india". that term amuses me. agreed, there is poverty, dirt, slums. But there is a vibrant urban India that no one thinks is film or award-worthy or interesting enough.
There is the India that goes to Leopold during the day, hangs out at Just Around The Corner, watches plays at the NCPA or Prithvi, waits for the monthly email from Strand book store telling them about the latest sale, etc etc etc. I donno, are people just feeling guilty for being able to do all this while a huge percent of our population is jumping into pools of shit to meet amitabh?(wtf????)
oh BTW, you should get your hands on this documentary "Born Into Brothels". It is fantastic. Its about the "real India". Why I liked it was, it was about an organisation/person who goes to the red light area of calcutta and teaches the prostitutes' kids photography. And these kids have gone on to study ahead and make a life for themselves. One of those guys in on FB also now. I saw him on a FB community for the film.
It does boggle the mind. For some strange reason, that has nothing to do with the movie, the spotlight is on India. I wish something worthwhile had been held up in it for the world to see, instead of this.
You should see the friggin' Pussycat Dolls version of the song if you haven't already. Puke-worthy.
Post a Comment