x86 said:
I dont know how come the review seems 'biased' to you, care to put up some details on the same taking the big picture into concern?
I did not intend it to be a flame bait, and even this reply is not.
What I simple meant was that except for a few movies like Shawshank Redemption, it is very easy to find faults.
There is a difference between clever film-making and great film-making. Make no mistake, Danny Boyle is immensely clever. “Slumdog Millionaire†is made as an out-and-out “crowd-pleaser†through proper audience-targetting which is done in the same careful way the Chopras target the lovey-dovey high school/college crowd and the Anil Sharmas target the uber-patriots.
It is not a documentry. It is a movie which is as commercial as it gets. Is that so difficult to see? And commercial flicks have to be crowd pleasers.
A character is booked on the flimsiest of charges and then he is beaten black and blue in a police station and given volts of electricity.
What else? Let’s see.
Child prostitution. Check.
Forced begging. Check.
Blindings of innocent children. Check.
Rape. Check.
Human filth. Bahoot hain sahab.
Call centers. Oh yes most certainly.
Destiny. Of course.
The reviewer here loves to add his sarcasm and wit if you can call it that. But tell me one thing. For a kid growing up in the slums, is the life really any different? :no: The BPO industry will contribute about 2.5 per cent to India's GDP in 2009.
Let’s say I made a movie about the US where an African-American boy born in the hood, has his mother sell him to a pedophile pop icon, after which he gets molested by a priest from his church, following which he gets tied up to the back of a truck and dragged on the road by KKK clansmen. Then he is arrested and sodomized by a policeman with a rod, after which he is attacked by a gang of illegal immigrants, and then uses these life experiences to win “Beauty and Geekâ€.
Even though each of these incidents have actually happened in the United States of America, I would be accused of spinning a fantastic yarn that has no grounding in reality, that has no connection to the “American experience†and my motivations would be questioned, no matter how cinematically spectacular I made my movie. At the very least, I wouldn’t be on 94% on Tomatometer and a strong Oscar favorite.
Yes I agree it wouldn't be accepted as well. But, it is not only the US where Slumdog Millionaire has been accepted. A movie that is well made will be accepted. Period.
But then you say—Boyle is constructing a fairytale, a dash of Indian exotica, a love story. Surely he can take liberties. Make the darkness darker in order to brighten the halo around the hero and heroine.
Like I said before, he was not shooting a documentary on Indian poverty. It is a fairytale without doubt, but better shot than many fairytales spun here by the many Karan Johars and Yash Rajs
The reason for that simple. Hindi movies are, by nature, downmarket and silly. English movies made by people like Boyle, even when they adopt all the conventions of the masala film, are not. Why? Because they have been validated by the “experts†as “life-affirmingâ€, “gloriousâ€, “celebration of the power of dreamsâ€. So “Slumdog Millionaire†with its horribly cliched and predictable love story is a “monumental tribute to the power of loveâ€. While Kuch Kuch Hota Hain with its equally cliched and predictable love story is “oooh sooooo bakwaasâ€.
I beg to differ here. Hindi movies, by nature are not downmarket and silly. There have been as many good and bad films here as in any other country. I liked Kuch Kuch Hota Hain and I absolutely hated Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Why? Both were equally commercial. But, the first was a simple movie with a tight script. The second was complete crap with all the "lucky charms" of Yash Raj in it. The ethnic punjabi background, the simple Punjabi hero, the beautiful locales etc. These are still tolerable. But the worst part were the experimentation in this particular film. As an e.g. remember the Sumo wrestler scene.
If there is anything unique about Slumdog is its use of the millionaire game show device to further its plot (even though the links between the plot and the questions are tenuous and sometimes extremely artificial), which I believe is one of the primary reason why people get caught up in the movie. The same reason they get caught up in reality shows like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire†and get up and cheer when a total stranger gets a million bucks. However once one goes beyond that device, there really is nothing exceptionally unique to Slumdog, nothing that warrants all the hype and hoopla.
He really thinks that the Millionaire show was the reason behind the immense popularity? Wow, this is so deep on his part.
I am not lambasting him. I'm just giving my views like he did. Yes, I'm a sucker for happy endings. Yes, I'm willing to give filmmakers the extra creative freedom if they can deliver me a fast paced movie with a tight script.
The sad part is that the politicians and actors who are against this movie saying that it is giving India a bad name are the same people who will not do anything about it and ignore it throughout their lives. I wouldn't be surprised if Dharavi slums are the same even after 50 years.
i have seen the movie and the first half is simply awesome the child artist's totally steal the show,but the second half becomes a bit boring and predictable i will give it a decent 7/10 dont get your expectations really high
you didnt get the crowds into discos with kraftwerk 
), you are taking it in a different manner than what was being projected. He is not glorifying the caste system. He has just shown what is already present here and even though it may be disappearing, it is quite prevalent.