Why 'Slumdog Millionaire' is a great film:
- Danny Boyle is an outsider. He intended the film to be like a Bollywood film. It's totally out of his world. He intended it to be a 'masala' flick. It's not the way he makes his movies, watch 'Trainspotting' or 'Millions' if you don't believe me, yet he succeeded. 'Slumdog Millionaire' became exactly what he wanted it to become. He probably may feel he could have done something differently but it is definitely close to what he intended it to be. Very few movies what they are intended to be, this is one of them.
- It makes you love India. Many Indians (Amitabh Bachchan for one) feel that 'Slumdog Millionaire' shows India in poor light. I accept it shows poverty.What I see in the film is three kids going through an adventure. I guess I am romantic. I loved seeing the kids escape from the clutches of the evidoer running the orphanage, sell tap water as mineral water, steal chappatis swinging heads down from the top of a train, con foreigners at the Taj Mahal, become a part of the underworld, serve tea in a call-center and win 2 million INR. A good movie often involves obtacles that an underdog has to overcome. What better obstacle to overcome than poverty in an economy where which is poised to grow at 7% even in a year of recession?
- This film has no agenda. It's plain fun! It's films like these what make me want to "go to the movies". It's not complicated, there seems to be no hidden-meaning, no allusions, no nothing except what's seen on screen. Watch any other Oscar nomination this year or past years and the films trying to make a point are numberless. Nowhere is the film is trying to make a point about the poor in India. There is no sympathy for Jamaal because he does not have money. The only feeling Jamaal gave me is that he is like anyone else. Trying to get - a girl, some money, enjoy life, be a decent guy in this bad world, that's it. There was scope for making points, the riots in Mumbai is an example where the film could have taken that route but didn't. Kids don't care about such stuff. Jamaal does not think much of it when he is grown up. All he remembers is Krishna! How is that?
Jamaal's story, to me, is like Rocket's (from 'City of God') and Chaipau's (from 'Salaam Bombay') rolled into one!
