TORONTO: Bollywood could not have got a more effective promotional 'video' without having to ask for it.
Slumdog Millionaire, a film produced by Hollywood's Fox Searchlight and directed and written by a famed British duo, has delivered a glorious punch on behalf of the often-maligned Bollywood song-and-dance set piece. Director Danny Boyle's film unspools a Bollywood number on the end credits which turns out to be the film's selling point. With Gulzar's lyrics and Sukhwinder Singh's vocals, the robust AR Rahman-composed song, Jai Ho, has the young protagonists, British-Indian actor Dev Patel and first-timer Freida Pinto, a chorus of dancers in tow, pulling off a rousing musical performance on a railway platform and atop a train. More than half the audience at the film's first press and industry screening at the ongoing 33rd Toronto International Film Festival sat transfixed long after the credits had begun to roll, which is usually a signal for people to jump to their feet and head out of the hall. Slumdog Millionaire, scripted by Simon Beaufoy of The Full Monty fame, is the story of a poor, uneducated boy who hits the jackpot on a game show, mixes elements of British realism and the conventions of a Bollywood love story. Director of the Palm Springs International Film festival, Darryl McDonald, summed it up best: "Isn't the Bollywood number absolutely outstanding?" http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Cetera/Bollywood_song_and_dance_Boyle_style/articleshow/3457500.cms
