http://www.slumdogmillionairemovie.co.uk/SPOILER WARNING!
This is not the first rag-to-riches story, nor shall it be the last. We've got it all in there: trouble and strife, even torture and finally the happy ending with Bollywood touches. Still I find it disturbing; as my friend said, the disturbing thing is that it looks real. The poverty, the slums, the gangster underworld, the rubbish dumps, all of it. There was a lot of media coverage of Mumbai slums because of this film and it does like that. OK, the film may exaggerate and concentrate it because we have to focus on one story, but still. And yes, this is not the only slum area in the world, it probably isn't the worst. But that's not the point. The point is: Jamal's life story played out in a bunch of random questions in a mainstream TV show watched by millions. I think that's the best thing about this film: that it manages to compress a human life in a multiple-choice TV game, but in order to diminish it, and yet through it we see the pain and effort each right answer has cost Jamal. He knows the answers not because he is smart, or highly educated, or because he cheats. He knows them because he has lived through these questions: he knows who invented the revolver because his brother said the name when he threreatened him with one, he knows what Rama holds in his right hand, because he's seen it the day his mother was killed, etc. The police inspector recognizes this and finally lets him go.
And again, it's about choice, it matters not what you're born, but what you grow up to be, as it's said in one of my favourite book series, Harry Potter. Jamal and his brother have the same background, but choose differently, and so they live differently and bear the consequences. It is written.
All in all, the script is great, the classic story and yet not quite. This is not a mainstream film, not that it is expected with Danny Boyle at the helm. Boyle's creations include The Beach and Trainspotting (I still don't think I can live through the whole of it; I've tried, but this film does not agree with me ... maybe when I live to 90 and nothing material and worldly can impress me anymore ...). As I said, Slumdog has a very realistic feel, live action shooting or whatever they called this shaky on-the-spot-kind-of shooting as well as the sweeping shots of Mumbai contribute to it. The soundtrack suits it a lot giving the ending a lively tribute to Bollywood. Actors suit it as well, the children are naturals.
In any case, this is a film worth seeing. I understand why it got so many Oscars (though I haven't yet seen the other nominated films), though I cannot but feel a teensy surprise at this choice. The most glitzy, glamourous and commercial awards in the film industry do not go to mainstream, blockbuster Hollywood (not that they always do), but to the ... Slumdog in Mumbai. I don't disgree, but my thoughts on the Oscars night are another story, which I'll be telling later.
