Monday, February 23, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire: Not The Ordinary Indian Movie

The Dark Knight was great, but Slumdog Millionaire is already far better on a whole different level.

Winning six Oscars of the night, Slumdog Millionaire proves itself as not just an Indian movie but a movie about life, brothers, love, death and money - completes with the three all-time best-selling issues: death, money, and sex - but not the exposed kind of sex.


The movie began with a young man being tortured by a police officer, who was so convinced that the under-educated, low-income boy had cheated his way up to the place next to being a millionaire in the popular TV show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire".

However the boy Jamal wouldn't succumb: "It doesn't take a genius to answer those questions."


His story began to unfold as the police officer asked him how did he managed to answer each and every question in the game. Village rivalries, mother's death, beggars syndiket, gangster, and trapped lover - Jamal's life was filled with terror, disappointment and also lost love, but all of these had somehow given him the clue to answer the questions in the game later.

Jamal's life had not been a pleasant one, even almost too harsh a reality of a lower level Indian's life to be shown on the big screen. The visual impact was so huge, so deep, and audience are forced to see the darker side of Indian's street - the good thing is, finally, we're not spoonfed with all the Bollywood's happy-dancing dramas anymore.

Someone has to show us what is really happening.

Yet the success of this movie doesn't lie only in its honest depiction of the dark side of Indian street, but also it's empathy on the characters to give them a chance to break out.

Maybe it wasn't the best or the most fulfilled ending for the movie, but at least when so much had happened and so many wounds had been inflicted, it's the realistic and better ending for Jamal.


On another note, the ending of the movie had been touching - and the Oscar results proves that it's not just about the storyline - it won Best Original Soundtrack score and the Best Song categories besides Best Sound Mixing.

The movie gave another thought for me - It would have been so much better if things never happened, if one never let go, if they hadn't looked back; Yet sometimes we have to go through so much only to realize, shed so much tears (and blood, probably) to see, and lost so much to get back to the initial point.

Overall, I would have to say: "Good job, Danny Boyle, and all the cast and crew!". Many have a lot to thank you for, and I thank you for such a movie enjoyment!


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