Victory!
More than two years after it’s debut, I finally got Varun to watch Slumdog Millionaire! When it originally hit the theatres Varun was completing his last year of Engineering and was something of a hermit; since then, we’ve never gotten around to watching it.
Until last night.
A friend of ours, K, came over for chai and Slumdog Millionaire. I probably should have warned K that Varun and I are chronic movie talkers.( I feel like people like us should come with warning labels). Luckily, we found each other, and chatter through movies. Here’s an example:
(Watching the scene were the slum gets attacked)
Me: Oh my gosh, that’s SO sad!
Varun: That must be the Mumbai riots.
Me: AH! (covering eyes)
K: (Silence)
Varun: Wow, that was bad.
Me: Can you imagine watching your mom get clubbed to death?
Varun: Who’s that girl?
K: (Silence)
Me: Why aren’t the police doing anything?
Varun: I think that was…1993.
Me: This is so sad. I want to adopt those kids. Oh, uhh…sorry, K, we talk a lot.
K: Haha (silence)
Anyway, despite our chatter, it was a fantastic cinematic experience! I was, once again, impressed by the director’s ability to switch between past and present without causing confusion. I loved the mixture of Hindi and English, which was enough to be realistic and not too much to feel like it’s a completely foreign film. Most of all, I loved seeing India. The good, the bad, the ugly. Like any movie, I’m sure this was accurate in some portrayals and not in others. Mostly though, it opened my eyes and heart to how many, many people live in a daily struggle of survival.
What were your thoughts? Love it? Hate it?
ESL Marriage 
Mar 04, 2011 @ 01:05:50
hehe, you know my thoughts about this movie. I didn’t like it at all, except few brilliantly shot scenes. Like the slum ‘chase’ scene. And the riot scene was also nicely done.
Also the ‘hero’ of the film speaking in english is a bizarre situation according to me. Because as per the movie he never really went to a school. And english is not a language which is commonly spoken on the streets, you normally just don’t pick it up, to know it and converse in it you have to be educated.
Honestly, i’m ok with all that, because indian movies (as you already know) are not realistic. they are like aspirational, dreamlike and silly alot of the times. But they are purposely made to be like that. Thats the so-called ‘style’.
But danny boyle is making this super realistic movie which also have these crazy “bollywood” elements. The story telling is so off. Which again is fine, but it being hailed as this G R E A T movie is something that….ummm, i don’t agree with!
:)