Hey gops..this is too much!!!!!!!!!!! reading this much of reviews and no chance to watch the movie or hear the music...
On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 2:42 PM, Gopal Srinivasan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Out of Frame: Slumdog Millionaire > Ever > wonder how much luck is involved in the success of the average quiz > show winner? Sure, being a brainiac doesn't hurt, but no matter how > much you know, unless the Venn diagram of your knowledge and those > questions has significant overlap, you're done and luck trumps > preparation. If Ken Jennings' first Jeopardy! appearance had > the set of questions from the day on which he eventually lost, instead > of being the most famous game show contestant in history, he might just > be some nerdy computer programmer from Utah you never heard of. But > what if you got on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?, and every > question you got, by pure coincidence, had a tie-in to a specific event > in your life, fate putting the fix in so that you were only asked > questions your life had been preparing you to answer? If you're a poor > 18-year-old kid from the Muslim slums of Mumbai who grew up as an > orphan and a grifter, it means you get to your final, 20 million rupee > question and are hauled off by the cops on suspicion of fraud. > That's where Jamal, the titular "slumdog" finds himself at the opening of > Slumdog Millionaire, > being tortured mercilessly by two unsavory lawmen attempting to get him > to fess up to just how he got to the final question on the notoriously > difficult Indian version of the famous game show. Once they quit > slapping him around, Jamal begins to tell his story, which unfolds in > two interlocking sets of flashbacks: one to his life growing up with > his ne'er-do-well brother after the death of his mother, the other to > his nerve-wracking run on the previous night's taping of the show. As > the cops go over the tape with him question by question, Jamal tells > stories from his past that explain exactly how he knew the answers. And > if that's all the movie was, it would be a pretty tedious and > predictable affair, but screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) > takes considerable liberties with the novel on which the film is based. > These two sets of flashbacks aren't the whole story at all. Both lead > to a cleverly constructed convergence around the great unrequited love > of Jamal's life, a girl (Latika) he meets while he's still a young boy. > They're both street urchins scamming money for a Fagin-like boss who > uses the kids ruthlessly. > > Director Danny Boyle has made a career out of a deficit of attention > towards any particular genre. He's done the Hitchcockian thriller, the > Scottish heroin movie, the fantastical American road romance, the > low-fi zombie flick, and contemplative sci-fi. Finding him in India > doing a bilingual feature with Bollywood actors and unknowns might seem > surprising, but when it comes to Boyle, there's nothing "typical" to > begin with. No two films could possibly look more different than the > crisp, glossy, ultra-modern and interstellar palette of his last film, > Sunshine, and the dirty poverty and visual chaos contained in Slumdog > Millionaire's grainy cinematography. But what really typifies his work is a > good story, well told, and that's exactly what Slumdog Millionaire has. > Boyle doesn't try to fight his fish-out-of-water status as an > English filmmaker working in Mumbai. Culturally, the film is > unmistakeably Western - that it centers on the Indian version of a > popular Western game show gives it an instantly recognizable reference > point. Organized crime archetypes are also familiar, and Boyle pushes > the religious and class distinctions that underlie the story into > subtle background notes; they're vital, yet secondary to the story > Boyle wants to tell. He even throws in American and British tourists > for more familiar touches (hough interestingly, by the time they come > up, we're so immersed in the lives of Jamal, his brother Salim, and > Latika, that rather than becoming proxies for the audience in a strange > land, they're quite obviously outsiders in a world and to characters > with which we now identify). And Boyle embraces the Bollywood side of > things as well, and those touches (many undoubtedly courtesy Indian > director Loveleen Tandan, to whom Boyle gave a co-director credit as a > result of her input), are great fun and make for a rich and diverse > film. > Most of all, though, Slumdog Millionaire is hugely > entertaining. That it's completely implausible isn't a hindrance at > all. Like a director from Hollywood's golden age, Boyle has a > particular talent for putting a realistic spin on the outlandish. His > cast is pitch perfect, from Bollywood star Anil Kapoor as the nearly > reptilian game show host, to British newcomer Dev Patel as Jamal. Boyle > also enlists legendary Indian film composer A.R. Rahman to put together > a stellar soundtrack (including a great collaboration between Rahman > and M.I.A.). Though it has its heavier moments, it's one of the most > guiltlessly pleasurable films to be released this year: smart, funny, > fast-paced, and poignant. > > http://dcist.com/2008/11/12/out_of_frame_slumdog_millionaire.php > > >
