I had a chance to see the much talked about Slumdog Millionaire, English version( Slumdog Crorepati in Hindi).
This rags to riches story set in Mumbai slums is essentially a masala flick rather than the film festival types.
Jamal, a chaiwalla at a call centre( who sometimes fills in for call centre employees) is on the KBC show(Who Wants to be a Millionaire) to search for his long lost-n-found-n-lost love Latika. Why KBC? B’coz it’s her favourite show & he hopes she is watching it
He seems to know all the answers that host Anil Kapoor throws at him.
He is suspected of cheating & is interrogated by the police before the final question round.
The story of his life unfolds as he recounts how he knew the answers, each of which is related to an incident in his & his elder brother Salim’s life, such as meeting Amitabh Bachchan, their mother getting killed in riots, their escape from the begging racket, their conning foriegn tourists, their brush with the underworld, his stint at the call centre etc.
The real winner here is the ingenius story, albeit with loopholes( thats what makes it more of a Bollywood potboiler) . The acting especially of the child actors is wonderful. The adults have performed upto expectations.
Anil Kapoor as the friendly on screen, wily off screen host is a treat to watch.
Freida Pinto as adult Latika has a good screen presence.
The USP is of course the haunting music & songs by AR Rahman which are in the background, except the last, just before the end credits which is a regular song & dance.
We are left wondering on things like, how does Jamal know whose picture is there on a$100 bill, when he does’nt know who is on a Rs.1000 note, how does he know about Oxford Circus in London etc.
Some really graphic scenes:
Young Jamal dips in a pond full of faeces to get Big B’s autograph,
Young Jamal’s friend’s eyes gouged out.
All in all I felt like I’m watching a Bollywood film rather than an International film. The original version is
bilingual with the sub titles for Hindi dialogues, not at the bottom of the screen but like comic book blurbs.
A recommended must see!