Saturday, February 21, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire


I have been wanting to write about this very subject, ever since I saw the movie. But somehow it got delayed...

Now, being captivated by illness, I have no other thing which can give me the pleasure of expressing my feelings....

So, here we go...



The film starts off with a question:

How did he (Jamal) do it?

A: He cheated

B: He's lucky

C: He's genius

D: It was written

& then the total scenario goes from a TV show to a jail, where third degree was being given to jamal.

& then as the story moved on, Jamal’s past life is shown in flashback...

Everything was there,

the lifestyle of a slum dog, a typical slum dog school where teachers are nothing except a bunch of morons, the riots, child labour...

Everything...

But wait, did it miss something?

You bet, what about the good aspect of the people having a normal, (so called) civilized lifestyle?

Danny showed us the dark side of INDIA.

I don't deny the fact that our country does have a dark shadow...

We all have a dark shadow...Don’t we?

What matters is what we are doing to overcome them...

INDIA is toiling hard to strengthen her economy...

But I don't think Danny observed that or dared to put those in his Oscar nominated film...

Let me mark out some points...

Here, Anil Kapoor plays a cheap role in a very cheap TV show...

Instead of encouraging or boosting Jamal’s spirits, he made Jamal’s slum dog status a matter of cheap pranks...

there is a scene where jamal wins 16,000 bucks n Anil tells that he'd better take the money n get out, coz he thinks that jamal isn't going to get the next one....

I accept that hypocrites like the character Anil plays exist, but isn't it a bit inconvenient that all hypocrites came under the same roof??

There comes another scene in flashback where jamal had become a guide. Now, while he was away with his customers...

Now, a bunch of hooligans stole different parts of their car...

When the Americans complained about this robbery, the police showered all the blames on young jamal n even tortured him...

Seeing this, the Americans became angry & rescued jamal...

here comes a dialogue from jamal: "You wanted to see a bit of real INDIA? here it is!!!"

"Here is a bit of real America son..." - comes the reply.

& the woman cursed that policeman...

Now my question to you is... Does a single incident give you the whole image of a Country?? Or even a person???

Doesn't the so called 'real America' have corrupted, stubborn people?

or is it in a way so that this criteria applies only in case of all the 3rd world war countries??

I really didn't understand what Danny wanted to say by that very scene....

to me that scene is nothing except a bogus point of view from a very narrow minded person.

I think all Danny wanted to say is that real America is greatly humanitarian, n real INDIA is not...

I don't know how many Americans or any broad minded person in this world will support this view....

Now comes another turnover....

The host, who was all the way demoralising Jamal....

Suddenly at the brink of a 10million question starts supporting him... moreover gave Jamal the answer of the question...Which was eventually wrong...maybe a jealousy worked here...

This is not expected, but not impossible either...

But clever Jamal didn’t fell for the bait & gave the other option as his choice. (After using a 50-50 Lifeline)

Then comes the explanation why Jamal was seen in a jail in the very first scene...

It was the host who tried everything he could to stop a slum dog from winning a dream streak..!!!!

(What surprised me the most is that there wasn’t any disclaimer at the beginning... saying that all the characters in the movie are imaginary & any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental...N blah blah blah... coz it directly attacked the mentality of a typical game show host...)

And what surprised me that Danny went on exploiting these points & the media didn’t even care!!!

But still comes few things which I liked...

Like the love bond between Jamal & Latika...

Whatever happened, however fate & consequences separated them, they found each other...

I liked the character Irfan played. He listened to the boy’s story & realised that he as innocent...

Also there was a scene where, after Jamal was released from police custody, an old woman recognised him inside the police car... She said “Jitke ana beta...meri dua hai...!”----which was all so wonderful...

The climax of the film is just like any other typical optimistic film...Jamal wins 20million Rs..

Here Danny draws a parallel contrast with Jamal’s brother, who kills Javed & dies in bathtub full of money...His last words were “God is great!!”

They say alls well that ends well...

But Danny again made me raise my eyebrows...

He gave the answer to the question that was asked at the beginning...

D: It was written

I don’t know what exactly he wants to say by that...

Is he actually trying to point out that we Indians believe in Blind Faith???

That we Indians are somehow a bit too spiritual??

Through out the whole movie all he had been saying is that Jamal won ‘by chance’...

Miracles like this do happen, but what about them who toil hard to meet both ends?

Wouldn’t it have been a better to show that Jamal worked hard for this success?

Moreover, instead of being a slum dog, without any good educational background, he understands and fluently speaks good British English... (Though I dunno how)

Let me be very clear...

I’m not against the film...

I’m against the way the whole plot has been portrayed....




You all are free to agree or disagree with me...

5 comments:

Dreammaker said...

I also agree with you.This is what even I also felt about the film.This film has a story to tell but the way it is executed,I did not at all like that.Because of a few Indian actors are there in the film,Indians have attached there precious sentimental value with it.But believe me nothing is so special in the film that brings it closer to the Oscar.Its all about hypes
I only liked the little Jamal and Latika portion and the great Music of A.R.Rahmanm

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

deepon... i too found the movie overhyped and the portrayal was really dumb.
i liked the childhood slum scenes and i liked irfan khan, as always, but it was a silly movie overall and certainly not worth all the oscar hoopla...
it was great to visit your blog. please write more often :)

ARNAB said...

Deepon, fantstic words. I am fully agreed with you. Besides every controverse, I think its well & good.

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

Deepon, long time no visit... watsup?

Unknown said...

"Danny showed us the dark side of INDIA.

I don't deny the fact that our country does have a dark shadow...

We all have a dark shadow...Don’t we?

What matters is what we are doing to overcome them"

i totally agree with you on the point that every country has dark shadow...its exploitations...corruption ...injustice...discrimination...andblah blah blah..
but i tend to differ from you on the fact that one country should do everything to get rid of that shadow. i mean a shadow exists only when a body exists.the shadow will cease to exist the moment the body disappears....and we surely don't want that to happen to INDIA now do we??!!??(especially while we are living in it!!)

i guess instead of eradicating the shadow our goal should be to make the darkness as much as lighter as possible...

who wants to live in world where everyone is nice and good and ...same....!!! it will be a bland world.....afterall its only due to the presence of darkness that we understand the importance of light.

and the movie seriously suck!! i mean except for the music which really was inspired and inspiring...A.R Rahman truly is awesum!!

Sth I like...:)