If’Slumdog Millionaire’ projects India as Third World dirty underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations.Its just that the’Slumdog Millioanire’ idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a westerner, gets creative global recognition.
These words of Amitabh Bachchan epitomizes Slumdog Millionaire.
I watched Slumdog Millionaire a day before yesterday just because of the hype around this British movie which incidentally has Indian actors. Also, this movie has bagged Golden Globe Awards and rumor is that it is a potential winner for Oscars.
Coming to the movie itself it tells us about Jamal Malik who is a 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai.He is just one question away from winning 20 million rupees on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" Then, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating as the final question was stalled for the next day due to timeout of the episode. He is tortured by the police and then Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum. Each question asked in the quiz show is somehow related to his past life and he answers each of them confidently.
Concept wise, no doubt it is an interesting plot to work on. But the film has nothing great to offer itself. Director has made lot of goofs which may be digestible to foreigners but not Indians.How Jamal was able to converse fluently with the foreigners at Taj? How can Jamal and Saleem go to rescue Latika from a brothel without being intervened at the last moment by the villain? How come grossly underage boys roam freely in red light area? Why the hell Anil Kapoor was so downright rude to Jamal and that too on a national broadcast? KBC was never live and then why this one was broadcast live? How come phone a friend option be useless if one is not picking up the phone by just trying once? List can go on and on.When an Indian policeman hit Jamal near Taj Mahal, an American lady tries to save Jamal. Then Jamal says to her see this is real India. To which lady says I will show you real America and hugs him. Now what does that mean? How much more derogatory can it get for Indians?
The movie still has some high points. The acting of Dev Patel in the role of Jamal Malik is excellent. Photography is good. The concept of mixing KBC with life of Slums was a good idea. But overall this picture is just a one time watch having zero repeat value. Boyle has just capitalized on the poor India image in the west and getting accolades for a below average flick.