Friday, January 30, 2009

Slum Dog Millionaire

Bollywood meets Hollywood..... but it's not a bad thing. Actually, Slum Dog Millionaire is more Brit than LA. Director Danny Boyle of 'Trainspotting' fame and Beaufoy, scriptwriter of 'The Full Monty,' met international aclaim when it played at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008. Now nominated for ten Oscars.

I love the soundtrack, the dancing at the end, the culture clashes, the depiction of the slums and squalor juxtaposed against the slick set and manufactured suspense of the 'Who Wants to be a Millionnaire' sting.

d. It was written.
(and written well!)

Jamil learns most of the answers the hard way, except of course, the final answer, which is his best guess. His millions comes at great cost... not just the life lessons, but the loss of his brother, whose final actions bring redemption.

I'll definitely have to pick up a copy of the book that inspired it all.... Commonwealth Writers' Prize nominated novel by Vikas Swarup, Q and A: "Narrated in the first person, the novel follows the life of the young waiter as he explains to his sympathetic lawyer, Smita Shah, just how he managed to answer twelve random questions, by pure luck. As he says, 'Well, wasn't I lucky they only asked those questions to which I knew the answers?'"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I finally saw the movie and loved it esp. the young Jamal and Salim