Slumdog Millionaire Masterpiece

[perry]

Best film I have seen for years with superb acting and great soundtrack. Deserves the best film at the Oscars.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Yes, well, hmmm, *polite cough* ... opinions vary.

 

[allcraz]

Best film I have seen for years with superb acting and great soundtrack. Deserves the best film at the Oscars.

I just watched it last night and said exactly the same. 2 thumbs up!

 

[bigbadwolf]

Here is one review:

http://www.counterpunch.org/sengupta02202009.html

And speaking for once as an ethnic Indian, I'm sceptical of any film that finds favor among effete liberal Western viewers, who have no real conception of living conditions in the so-called "Third World," and nothing to offer beyond, "I feel your pain."

I would recommend instead Mike Davis's "Planet of Slums." It's out in paperback now so it should be easily affordable: the price of two cinema tickets.

 

[perry]

Bigbadwolf Slumdog Millionaire might be inconceivable but films are pure escapism especially Indian Films where a happy ending is a requisite.

Overanalysis is not needed here as this is truly a great film with excellent cinematography, acting , and a terrific soundtrack.

 

[syngirl]

I agree with Pericles -- Slumdog is essentially a fantasy love story, and I find it so funny that so many try to analyse it when Bollywood cinema is always myth and fantasy. Maybe Slumdog's mistake was trying to incorporate gritty images instead of just creating a soudstage fantasy as seen in most Bollywood films?
I say forget the analysis, it's a movie, not a documentary. Furthermore it's a movie made by a Brit starring another Brit who grew up outside of London and had never been to India until he filmed the movie. Of course he's got the upper class English accent going on, they could have tried to get him to do a better accent, but Danny Boyle was already trying to get away with a movie that was 1/3 in Hindi, originally meant to be only 10%, so I don't think American distributors would have been happy if he'd come back with a movie full of heavy accents, Americans rarely like a foreign movie as it is.
If people are really offended by what they see in the film, maybe it will spur them to make something truer that documents "reality".
When I first saw City of God years ago, it was at a screening at a film fest. They preceded the movie with a documentary about life in the favelas from the police perspective. The police were earning ridiculously low wages, and their firearms and vests were worse quality than what the gangsters had on. No documentary is ever the truth either, as the director always has his own motive as to what story he wants to tell. However pairing the movie with the documentary did offer the chance for a more balanced perspective.
So maybe next year we'll get some good docs or movies coming out of India to try and offer another perspective on life in the slums. For the time being, go see Slumdog Millionaire and just enjoy it.

 

[HotYogaTeacher]

Hey All~

I enjoyed this movie and I had a great deal of fun watching the STORY unfold. Films - good on ya Peri - are entertainment, except if they are documentaries, which this film is not.

Just because the slums of Mumbai aren't expressed in perfect realism - according to some - doesn't negate the entertainment value of this film. No one made such a fuss when they first made the film West Side Story, where rival ethnic gangs danced and sang their street battles over a doomed love affair between two young people from different sides of the ethnic divide.

Lighten up people...
Next thing you know we'll be picking apart Dr. Seuss and the Grimm Brothers...

 

[bigbadwolf]

Just because the slums of Mumbai aren't expressed in perfect realism - according to some - doesn't negate the entertainment value of this film.

If you're watching it as entertainment, then my objections become irrelevant and fall flat.

I loathe Bollywood with a passion. The opiate of the Indian masses.