Slumdog Millionaire - The Movie Review - "As good as it proceed$"

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British film directed by Danny Boyle. It has been adapted from the Indian novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup. To start off, my first appreciation goes for Vikas for such a novel storyline. But it was better on screen due to Boyle’s direction and the excellent screenplay by Simon Beaufoy. Its for sure a never-before-seen kinda movie anywhere in the world. But I really think its for sure not 2008’s Best movie. It’s a good movie. A simple movie handled awesomely. That’s it. It can never beat The Dark Knight. Cmon, people must’ve forgotten how Dark Knight was. Its surely one of the best movies ever made and it deserves a #5 slot in imdb, but not a #34 slot for Slumdog Millionaire or a #39 slot for Wall-E.. That’s totally dumb ! Slumdog Millionaire is a good film. But doesn’t deserve #34 over Taxi Driver, Forrest Gump, The Departed, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Reservoir Dogs, Terminator 2, Rashomon, Reservoir Dogs, Batman Begins, Gladiator, Fargo, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Prestige or A Beautiful Mind. Seeing some lame ratings like these makes me feel imdb is no more a place with the perfect fan ratings. Maybe its because it had a completely new, not-so-usually seen style of filmmaking / story handling for the world audience. For adapting a completing new Indian culture & filmmaking style by a person from another side of the world is awesome. This shows his excellency as a director who can film anything on this Earth.

Dev Patel, the protagonist of the film is just tolerable. That’s all I can comment on him. Friedo Pinto as the female protagonist is good, not great. Anil Kapoor as the show host is good. Irfan Khan as the inspector is good. The best performances have come from the small children who enacted the childhood counterparts. That’s a shame for Dev or even the guy who played his brother Salim. So, three cheers to, Azharuddin Ismail (youngest part of the hero, jamal), Ayush Khedekar (youngest part of the hero’s bro,Salim), Rubiana Ali (youngest part of the heroine), Tanny Chheda (middle Jamal), Ashutosh Gajiwala (middle Salim). These kids where the winning points of the film other than Rahman’s outstanding score, Anthony Don’s superb cinemtagraphy, Chris Dickens’ crisp editing, Simon’s screenplay and Danny Boyle’s direction . Loveleen Tandon deserves special appreciation for her directorial & scripting support. Could'nt have been so good without her. As many have always commented, that this movie is just potraying the slums of India to the whole world. I think it was not just this movie. It was through this movie that eventually made people of India to burst out on this issue.

Any hollywood movie filmed in India or had any scenes in the movie would be showing the slums or beggars or people pulling horse-carts. Eventually this trend passed on for years and finally it bursted out. Well, i just like that can't propose any solution for this, because stories are made having such connections here. but maybe we can have more movies showing less of slums. That's not only for India, it applies the same for any country. Every country has its own slums. But showing only those constantly to the world, would change one's perception about that place. Hope issues like these are not taken/ shown to affect the movie's quality or an interesting script. Secondly, people say that the word “Slumdog” is being considered to replace the word “beggar”. Crap ! That’s racist according to me. You cannot call anyone a dog, just because he is from a poor family or doesn’t have money. People who enjoy / support / encourage racism should be dealt with seriously. But one good aspect this movie has woke up so many people is the ongoing severe racism being followed all over the world. But the bad aspect, it might increase the same ongoing racism. Anyways. If not for Danny Boyle’s film, the original novel, Q&A would have been unnoticed. The relevant awards it has to win are Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography (a tough decision considering Dark Knight’s astounding cinematography), Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound Mixing / Editing. But the honours actually predicted from it are the Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original song, Best Sound Mixing / Editing. I’m sure Slumdog Millionaire will walk away with atleast 4 Oscars ! Man, what a film it must’ve been, to capture the interests of so many worldover !!

Jai Ho Danny Boyle !!
Jai Ho A.R Rahman !!
Jai Ho Vikas Swarup !!
Jai Ho Simon Beaufoy !!
Jai Ho Anthony Dod !!

Rating:
3.8/5