Slumdog Millionaire

As soon as I heard the news about 'Slumdog Millionaire' winning accolades from international audience, I was expecting the release date in Indian theaters. Finally I have seen this movie @ Big cinemas in Kalyani Nagar, Pune. It was a fresh morning show and theater was nearly packed. love to see good Hollywood movies in English (even if it is Indian community oriented) as I believe translations might go wrong or inexpressive many times. When the certificate of movie was shown as "slumdog Crorpati" I thought going out of cine hall, but after 5mins I was happy understand that the display was just wrong.

From the very first shot till the break (huh, break made for Indian audience) the movie was fascinating, the story revolves around a guy from very slum of Mumbai "Dharavi" participating in a quiz show "Who wants to the Millionaire"(KBC in actuals), first half was entirely carried by three young (childhood) musketeers, Jamaal, Salim and Latika. I have heard/read from few famous critics that Danny Boyle is one of the directors who works well with the child actors and that is completely proven on screen. Innocence and prudent talent of these stole my heart. Perhaps, the story telling, for each and every "question", method elegantly matched for the movie. But after few questions I couldn't avoid wondering about 'only incidents of Jamaal's life came as questions in a quiz show, it looked like coincidence at Everest.

The second half of the movie couldn't match to screen play of first, Simon Beaufoy did a amazing job in capturing childhood of Jamaal, but he could have kept romance scenes(affair!!!) in a better way than it appears. There was more of a chase than romance. Some scenes are truly classic to its originality like when Jamaal was asked sing 'Darshan Do Ghansham', he demanded 50 bucks for turning into 'professional' and guiding Taj Mahaal to couple from abroad, they were very humorous and original.

While appreciating work done by Anil and Irfan, we shouldn't forget to give credits for Madhur (Salim) and Saurabh for their fantastic work. Dev patel and Freida have done good job in their debut movie. But, to me, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail (Youngest Salim) and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar (youngest Jamaal) are the true heroes who won my heart. Antony's camera worked well to show "Dharavi" naturally, If something was very consistent but adopting the changing mood of the movie that was ARR's elegant music, may be, we have heard quite a hit songs and rocking music from him in many movies. This one is not lesser than any of his earlier creations. He stood his genius once again with winning 'Golden Globe' too. I can say on behalf of million fans "ARR, please bag us an OSCAR".

Now, I need to tell our dear audience that we are very much lagging in appreciating a movie and its background score (and songs). We all knew the song 'Jai Ho' won golden globe and crew are recommended for OSCAR, but, by the time this song was played (at the end with crew list) people moved out of cine hall. I wish they have listened to it on their music systems.

This movie doesn't have rich looking background like "Titanic" and "Gladiator" but it has strong content like "Million Dollar Baby". Well, considering OSCAR winning qualities in a laymen perception "Slumdog Millionaire" deserves 3.5 - 4 out of 5.

May God be with ARR for OSCAR show.