The Millionaire Slumdog

Movie Review
Slumdog Millionaire
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Co-directed by: Loveleen Tandan

There has been quite a lot of good words said about this movie. A friend who's a movie freak told me about it once, and the movie popped up in Time magazine just a tad later after hearing it from him. The movie then won the Golden Globe award for best picture, and it became a must-see in my list (actually, any movie mentioned by my movie-freak friend usually ends up in my must-see list).

After acquiring a copy of the movie (through a rather illegal yet generally acceptable means, if you catch my drift), I went straight ahead and saw it along with my brother in a crampy room we called home. The story is of a young Indian man who is arrested because he is under suspicion of cheating in a well-known TV game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" (the Hindi version). As the interrogation comes along, he explains why he knows the answers to the questions asked during the show and revelations about his childhood unfolds. Ultimately, the true purpose of his participating in the show slowly unveils itself.

At first, the movie's cinematography, tone of colors, dark social themes, and acting reminded me of another great movie from a few years back. The movie in question was "City of God". For those have seen it will understand what I am referring to. The theme at first surrounds the harsh life of street children (albeit set in different places, times, and social settings) and gangster life. As the movie moves along, however, the story subtly transforms itself into a sort of gritty fairy tale love story. In this regard, the movie manages to beautifully blend the gritty aspects of life along with the sort of fairy tale-ness worthy of Hollywood fame.

There's a lot to love about the movie for everyone: excellent cinematography, great screenplay, wonderful acting (all of the cast are Hindis, many are unknown to me*), gritty-yet-beautiful backdrops and (there it is yet again) a great story. To sweeten the deal, the soundtrack accompanying the movie is also wonderful (it won the Golden Globe as well, apparently). They even threw in a bit of dancing at the end of the movie (during credit rolls) as a homage to Bollywood. This will definitely please fans of Hindi movies.

So, there you go. A movie that will be loved by men because of the (slightly) harsh theme but will also be loved by women for its fairy tale-ness. As always, do yourself a favor and watch this instant classic. It is destined to be one, afterall.

*note: most likely because I don't watch Hindi movies in general.