Slumdog Millionaire opens the rotten face of India, does it? Does it show the so called “dirty underbelly” of India? Slumdog word is racist as alleged by a chap from Bihar. But really?? If I had one word to describe these comments it would have been a *beep*!!

By no means this movie is aimed at showing the chronic poverty of our nation. Many reviewers have criticized this movie for showing only the dirty reality of the country instead of displaying all those swanky buildings, glittering malls etc.

Slumdog Millionaire narrates a story of 2 siblings & a girl, who rise from the dirty slum life and move into different directions of life. The older brother (”Salim“-played by Madhur Mittal) ends up working for a gangster, the girl (”Latika“-played by Frieda Pinto) ends up as a show girl with the same gangsters and the hero of the movie the younger brother (”Jamal“-played by Dev Patel) ends up living a rather straight life as a tea server in a call center. Jamal reaches the “hot seat” of Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by an arrogant quizmaster Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) who don’t want him to win the game. He calls the police to get Jamal Malik arrested on the charges of fraud at the end of day 1 of the show. At the police station Jamal is tortured first by the sound thrashing from Constable Srinivas (Saurabh Shukla) and then he is subjected to electric shock, all to make him speak about how a tea serving slumdweller can give the correct answers.

The movie revolves around the dingy slums of Dharavi. The heaps and heaps of garbage, dogs with flees, young Jamal jumping in a pit full of *beep* (*sic*), hindu-muslim riots, pimps, gangsters, rough language is some of the few characteristics of the film which together with the superb cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle makes it an ultra realistic movie. Kudos to the director Danny Boyle and co-director Loveleen Tandon for the impressive direction and superb camera takes which shows the minutest of the details of the dirty slum life. The screenplay was outstanding.

Acting:If I had to rate the performance of the characters I would surely give a high five to the children artists of the movie. Almost half of the movie shows them and their acting was very natural and realistic. Dev Patel was fine too. Frieda Pinto didn’t had too much of the screen time but delivered good performance. Anil Kapoor was cool. Irrfan Khan as the deadly cop together with Saurabh Shukla gave the top performances together with the child artists. Mahesh Manjrekar was looking a real gangster. He was rough, bad and whatever you may call a gangster. Madhur Mittal as the older brother Salim was quite good.

Sound/Music: Well the music has so many nominations for the Oscars what more can I write!!??!!
The sound effects were superb. The background score was creepy good. “Jai Ho” track comes at the end of the movie. The song is classic but I doubt whether it would take away the oscar. Let’s hope for the best. A.R Rahman proves that he is the best in this field!

The movie has been given an “A” certificate and rightly so. It has some good amount of strong language, violence in the form of riots, torture, a child being blinded with hot syrup (something), murder and other such things happening in the slums. These violent scenes are quite chilling and tense.

Overall I would recommend this movie to every person who has a tag “Indian” attached to him/her. A detailed insight into the murky life of slumdwellers. Slumdog Millionaire is one of those movies which has a happy ending. And out of the 10 oscar nominations it would bag atleast three i.e in “cinematography”, “editing” & for the song “Jai Ho”. It is a perfect edge of the seat thriller wrapped in the ghostly realities of slums.
Hightly recommended.

I loved this movie....it is a feel good movie...No doubt, as it lifts ur spirits high.....!! The story is great, all the actors have performed brilliantly....there is not even one dull moment in the movie....The Music...is awesome....Jai ho ...Slumdog Millionaire.....
Everyone MUST watch this movie....u will love it...

I felt like

Good movie & powerful Story

So we are spending millions celebrating the Slum Dog millionaire bagging the four Golden Globe Awards and nominated for ten categories for Oscars. But did we pause and ponder- Are these awards really for Indians? Apart from A R Rahman all are non Indians who won and got kudos- directors, producers. We are going ga ga over it but having seen the movie I can say it with confidence that no doubt it is a good movie, well shot and scripted, with director using the flash back technique to show how the hero knew the answers to all the question except the last where he used his gut instincts in the game show, but it also projects and brings India’s darker side into limelight. We are still fighting to erase the concept of foreigners that India is more than the country of snake charmers and elephant rides. Now this movie has added another negative dimension that India is country of slums, mafia, prostitutes, molls, and rackets for picking rag pickers and orphans, maiming them and making them beg on streets. Policemen are rough, cruel, use third degree and are foul mouthed. Most of the Indian characters are shown using the four letter f word. In fact the movie starts with the sentence having the expletive Mother F…..er.

That Rahman won for his music is no music to my ears for basically the movie got the awards because a) it is a British Movie showing India and Indians with their pants down, literally and metaphorically. A child is shown swimming in human waste and is shown running with muck all over him to get the autograph of his favourite hero and that he gets the autograph by chewing chewing hero without twitching his nose seems that we are used to the stench as most of the Indians urinate in open and even defecate. India and Indians are shown in bad light. It is an objective film as seen from the eyes and camera of a foreigner’s point of view but it can be termed subjective too as it not only highlights the darker side but also shows the religious divide. The hero of the film- Jammal( A Muslim Character) is shown as answering the question correctly on Ram ( Hindu God) by saying that had Ram not wielded Bow and Arrow in his hand, his mother would still b alive, suggesting that Hindus killed his mother in riots , rendering him orphan, thus making him what he is. In the euphoria we are turning blind eye to the criticism of religious divide. It has provocative suggestions which could further tear the fabric of our unity and coexistence.
Dev Patel- the British Indian actor has been quoted for denying that the movie presents a negative side of India and defending the portrayal as saying “while shooting in Mumbai’s Dharavi we were happy to be proved wrong about what we had expected slums to be like in India. Unlike what is often seen in more sophisticated circles, picture we got at Dharavi was a pleasant one. Everyone knew everyone else…..and were happy”. Do we get to see that side in the movie? No

May be those who are raving about the movie here in India are basing their views on heresy as it is yet to be released here but having seen the movie the Indian within me is raging. Am I reading too much into it? May be but the track record of awards show that be it books, movies, comedy shows on English channels, paintings- we win only when we have projected Indians in poor light. Lagan might have won had the British won the game, Tare Zamin pe might if the boy had come from poor family, eating and sleeping in trash bin with stray dogs. Come on have some pride Indians and not celebrate your poverty and underdogs.

I LOVED this movie. More than the story itself, I felt that its brilliant because of the direction, the cinematography, and of course, the music by our own A.R. Rahman. Some have criticized this movie for showing the negative side of India, but when I saw it I just watched a wonderfully acted and directed story of love, humanity, triumph and hope. Every film industry in the world shows both sides of life, good and bad. The main goal of a film is to tell a story, to tell it well, and to entertain its public while at it. And "Slumdog Millionaire" does just that, in a poetic, riveting, beautiful way.

I highly recommend it to everyone.