Monday, January 19, 2009

Slumdog is a love story

Slumdog!!
What a movie!! People told me that maybe it is a bit overdone from the romantic angle and seems improbable. I'll tell them now, "THAT's what you found improbable!!". The movie is about improbability and the fantastic, about how something wildly beyond our imagination can take place. It's about a dream, a dream that the characters in this movie did not even think to dream of and yet, it came true.
Sure, it seems unreal, but isn't that what cinema is all about. About how that one person out of 1.3 billion people in this country had that unreal life. People thought that the romantic angle was too much. Well, wasn't the small kid jumping into a pile of shit holding just that Amitabh Bachhan photograph in his heart and that wild desire in his heart unreal. Isn't the fact that people kill each other over Allah or Ram or that people blind young children to earn cash unreal; or is it just that we are so used to such news that they are reality but a guy loving a girl through his life: "Oh boy, that's so crazy man!!"
The movie is not about the money. Jamal couldn't care less when he answered the last question. This movie is not about hope or inspiration, it's just a feel good movie for all those millions out there who associate with him and feel happy for him that he got his true love.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on all but one...the boy jumped into the puddle of shit with the photo in his hand..not his heart.

:P..i'm sorry...cudn't resist.

and regarding my opinion on the movie..nothing is unreal or else it would also be unconceivable..several things that happened in the movie could be classified as improbable..but then, most movies are based on what could have happened/could happen..or on improbabilities..or they would cease to capture our attention and would fall under the category of "daily news"..(although with aaj-tak reporting the reception of a photograph of lord krishna from outer space, even daily news has become full of improbabilities)
nevertheless, to make a long story even longer, i did not find the movie as engaging as the rest of the world did..anil kapoor will not make a good presenter, particularly if the job requires him to exhibit fluency in english..and, however great may be his intimacy with foreigners, a "slumdog" cannot acquire a solid british accent and pronounce 'aramis' with a guttural 'r'.

Pratik Poddar said...

good post... :)