Slumdog Hoopla

Well, with nothing much to do in the evenings (I'm now a certified member of the federation of Unemployed Youth of India), i decided to catch a show of the Slumdog that's been raking in millions and awards worldwide. The media's been ranting about it, as are the channels anything for TRP's, and we are fed to a daily dose of the hype and hoopla, the success and controversies that surrounded it. I did'nt read the Big B's blog but got the jist of what he said (courtesy news channels), but did read through a rather scathing attack made by Arindam Chaudhuri (you couldnt overlok it, he had almost half a page in all the national dailies on the 26th i guess).

Anyways cut to the movie, i cannot deny that i had a fair idea of what to expect from the movie, but then from the guy who gave us Trainspotting and to a lesser degree The Beach, my reference to Danny Boyle was not completely vague as Anil Kapoor claimed in numerous interviews (apparently he went Danny boyle who ?). The movie begins well and i think i agree with Bugs here, that the best part of the movie is the childhood scenes with stellar performances from all the kids.
But as the plot moved on in its tri-parallel plot, the show, the interrogation, and Jamal's life, it slowly becomes hackneyed and drudged. Again, for all the hoopla Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto, have little to do, the path is laid by the child performers. In fact, to be very honest, i dont even agree to Dev's casting as the older Jamal. We really dont have office boys with strong british accents, hell, even the best of Tele exec's can hardly communicate in english. But then u have to apply the supension of disbelief theory to see a young kid jump into a mass of human shit and get up and start speaking in chaste english!

However, i liked the elder Salim's performance in the latter half, in fact the character was perhaps the truest of all the characters. All in all, i figured that what shocked the West were scenes which have become a part of life for us. The novelty of it is perhaps lost on us indians. Though the audience does respond to the black humour that Boyle depicts; just about.
Though, quite a few of my friends have strongly recommended Vikas Swarup's Q&A, over the movie.
I dont think i'll go out of my way.
After all I've been brought up on the Bollywood fare of the rags to riches story and love and good prevail in the end, throughout my life.

In any case would we have gone to watch the movie if made by an Indian director and titled "Basti ka karorpati", "Jhopriwala karorpati", "Bastiwala bana karorpati"...? No unanimously.

An Oscar for this movie? Certainly not if i'm in the jury.
Well... maybe just for Rahman's sake. :)