BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Slumdog Millionaire is one of the most discussed movies in 2008-09 movie arena, and has created a huge hype in general audience. This movie tells us about the journey of a poor, neglected slum-kid’s life towards accomplishment and achieving his goals. and This movie reflects truthful and honest reflection of poor slum life in such a beautiful way, that not only impressed and won the million of audiences heart but also gained a tremendous worldwide recognition by achieving numerous awards.

~DIRECTOR~

The famous British movie director Danny Boyle was born in 20th October, 1956 at Radcliffe, Lancashire. He belongs to a normal working-class catholic family. He rose to fame for his directorial debut feature film “Shallow Grave”, which earned him the Best Newcomer Award from London Film Critic Circle, 1996. After that, he directed some outstanding and critically acclaimed movie such as Trainspotting and 28 days later. As a director, Mr. Danny did cover some diverse area as a ground of his film. He is not just stereotyped in directing only one genre of movies like some typical directors. As a result one of his movies revolves around the post-apocalyptic sci-fi theme and another one revolves around the aftermath of drug-addiction in life. He just can’t be type casted in a certain movie genre; he has covered vast and wide subjects as the themes of his movies which led him to earn a world-wide acknowledgment and unparallel popularity. His latest magic spell on the audience is the movie named Slumdog Millionaire, and once again he succeeded to win everyone’s heart, from the normal viewer to the most hard-hitting movie critics.

~STORY ADOPTED FROM~

The original story of this movie based on a novel named Q &A, written by an Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup. It was author’s very first novel and earned him the Boeke Prize (South-Africa), 2006 and also the Prix Grand Public prize (Paris Book Fair), 2007.

Mr. Swarop’s book has been adopted in three different media versions, and each version saw the positive reception from audience and also critically praised. Those versions are radio play (BBC Radio4), a stage musical and the historical film version as Slumdog Millionaire.

~SCREEN-WRITING~

The prominent and award-winning screen writer Simon Beaufoy adopted and re-wrote the story of Slumdog Millionaire based on Q&A novel. Mr. Simon made three research trips to India, to learn and to experience the original slum life in Mumbai, to make the story more authentic and practical.

~CLOSER LOOK TO ACTORS/ACTRESSESS~

The main character Jamal Malik is played by the famous Dev Patel. He is critically praised for his role as Anwar Kharral, a young muslim boy confused between religious faith and his own freedom in SKIN(British Teen Drama Series). He is also famous for his martial-art performance and earned him a bronze medal in AIMAA world Championship in Dublin, 2004.

Freida Pinto plays the character of Latika, the love-interest of Jamal Malik in this film. She is also from poor back ground same like Jamal, in this movie. Freida Pinto rose to fame and gained wide recognition for her outstanding role in this movie.

Madhur Mittal, an Indian born actor, plays the role of elder brother of Jamal Malik, as Salim Malik. He did some roles in mainstream bollywood movies as child actor and also acted in some famous tv-soaps in India. But the role in Slumdog Millionare as Salim, earned him world wide identification and also few respectable awards.

CHARACTERS

Dev Patel as Jamal Malik(Main protagonist of the movie.)
Madhur Mittal as Salim Malik(elder brother of Jamal)
Freida Pinto as Latika(Love-interest of Jamal.)
Anil Kapoor as Prem Kumar (The famous host of game show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’)
Mahesh Manjrekar as Javed(a rival crime lord and Salim works for him.)
A.M Khedekar as the youngest version of Jamal Malik.
A.Ismail as the youngest version of Salim Malik.
Rubina Ali as the youngest version of Latika.

PLOT OUTLINE

The protagonist of this movie, Jamal Malik is poor and neglected boy from Dharavi slum, Mumbai, in India. He and his elder brother Salim lost their mother in a hindu-muslim riot and became homeless and came on the street. So, they did numerous low-end works to live their lives including tourist guides, pick pocketing,transporting goods. Later, Salim ends up working under with a local crime lord, Javed. And, Jamal works in a call centre company as a tea-boy.

Latika is also a poor slum girl lost her family in the very same riot, and tag along with those brothers. Later Salim betrayed his younger brother and kept Latika with himself.

Prem Kumar is a famous host of Indian game show named as “Who wants to be a millionaire”. He has typical rich mentality, got suspicious and also kind of jealous when Jamal was playing really well in the game show.

The movie tells us how Jamal struggled and faced complications growing up in the street. Also tells us, how Jamal entered in to the game show and answered all the questions correctly based on his real life experience. This movie also tells us, how Jamal met his love of life Latika once again and convinced her to go with him.

This movie has a very interesting and engaging plot. All the scenes and sequences revealed in such an outstanding way, that audience sticks with movie to the very end.

MUSICAL SCORE

The musical Maestro, the phenomena Mr. A.R Rahman composed the music for this film. Mr. Rahman is an exceptional musician and widely admired both in Asia and western world for his unique style and rhythm. Mr. Gulzar, a prominent writer and lyricist gave the lyrics for this movie. The movie ending track “Jai Ho” won the Oscar for best original musical score. This track is so popular that it ranked 11th in US billboard.

PERSONAL THOUGHT

I personally think, this is an outstanding movie in every aspect. Not only because it reflects the poor life of slum-kids, but also how it has been portrayed in the screen is also pleased me to a great extent. As a foreign Director in India, Mr. Boyle did his homework very well. He did able to explain and show audience the real life of poor street kids from slum in a very pragmatic and graphical way.

I also think highly of the work of Dev Patel. As in the role of Jamal Malik, He just played it with superb perfection. His facial expression, body movements and delivery of dialogues are simply flawless. Specially, I really appreciated his on screen charisma, when he met his brother after years. Despite of all the betrayal and back stabbing how he really feels for his brother, is just awesome. Jamal loves Latika from very young age. As he is so devoted to Latika, in every moment of his life he keeps on trying to find her and rebound with her.

I really like the way, how this movie illustrates the change of fate of an orphan boy in such believable way that, we just can’t ignore the fact that, yes miracle do happens. If we stick to our plan and concentrate on achieving our goal, hopefully someday the chance will come. We just have to be smart enough to know the path and take the right choice in right time.

~SOCIAL VALUE~

This movie also tells us the social status does vary person to person and it also affects our mentality. Just for example, it is almost impossible for Prem Kumar (the game host) to believe that, a worthless, street kid like Jamal can be a such smart lad to answer all the technical and difficult questions. It is just hard to believe for rich people like Prem Kumar to trust and gave the same status to poor people as themselves. But we just can't change this mentality all of a sudden. It is hard but honest reality. Not all rich people are same. But some of them to think and act like Prem Kumar, when they see a normal person like Jamal is achieving the goals of his life, they just cannot control their emotions.

In bollywood

movies, often Police force portrayed wrongly as the dishonest, corrupted and only works for money. But to be honest, this is not true in all cases. There are still some honest and dedicated police-persons, who actually work for the betterment of civilians. Mr. Danny Boyle represents the character of police inspector in such a nicest way that, it wants us to trust police as our friend and helpful guard of the society. Irrfan Khan is a famous bollywood actor plays the role of an honest police officer. He is very honest with his job and duty, just can’t performs rightfully due the superior’s order.

~THINGS I LIKE~

1. Brilliant execution of story and presentation.
2. Excellent and boastful performances by Dev Patel, Freida Pinto and Irrfan Khan.
3. Evolution of Jamal from kid to a grown up man has been shown masterfully.
4. Superb musical score by the great phenomena A.R Rahman.
5. Outstanding screenwriting by Simon Beaufoy.
6. Mr. Danny Boyle’s magnificent direction.

~THINGS THAT DISAPPOINTS ME~

I really wish that, I don’t have to write this paragraph, as I loved this movie from the bottom of my heart. There are almost no flaws in this movie. Still I think there are some technical errors could have been avoided for a better conclusion.

1. Fluent English speaking ability with British accent for a street-kid like Jamal from Mumbai is kind of weird.
2. The very melodramatic and traditional (typical bollywood type) happy ending, though in real life it actually does not happen that much.

VIEWER’S RECEPTION

This movie has been praised and loved by the audience. Both western and Asian viewers absolutely loved this movie. But, some Indian authors and film critics are kind of unhappy with the film style. Some of them are unhappy for the obvious fact that, though this movie has been made in India, still has a strong influence from western world. Despite of these negative remarks, this movie has been received largely positive in India.

~IMDB RATING~

Currently this movie ranked as a 42th place, in all time top 250 movies voted by users. Currently over 92 thousand users rated this movie 8.4/10.

AWARDS

This movie has earned numerous awards and widely acclaimed by the movie critics. It is ranked almost in the top ten movies in every leading newspaper.

~BAFTA AWARDS~
Slumdog Millionaire won seven awards in total from BAFTA, including the best director went to Danny Boyle and best film went to Mr. Colson. Musical maestro A.R Rahman also won award for film music.

~GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD~

Slumdog Millionaire won four awards in total from Golden Globe, including the best director as Danny Boyle and best drama as film. Music expert A.R Rahman again won award for film music.

~THE OSCAR AWARDS~

Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for 10 catagory of awards and won 8 of them, including the best director went to Danny Boyle and as best film went to Christian Colson. Musical maestro A.R Rahman won two Oscars as the best original score and best original song “Jai Ho”.

FINAL THOUGHT & RECOMENDATION

In my final opinion, I think it is an excellent movie with great storyline and some brilliant performances. Despite of very few negative remarks and points, this is marvellous movie. I have enjoyed every second of this movie. I personally recommend you to watch this movie as soon as possible. It is funny, gratifying and appealing joy-ride experience for me. Mr. Danny boyle brought such honour and nobility for England. Despite of England being criticized by others for credit crunch and related stuff, Slumdog Millionaire brought honest graciousness and honour for British people. We, the every single british citizen and residents are truly proud of Mr. Danny Boyle for his Master-piece movie Slumdog Millionaire.

WHERE CAN WE GET IT

The DVD and Bluray version are slated to be released on 31st march, 2009. But hey nothing to worry about it, we still can watch them in Cinema halls. There are almost four to five shows per day, so what you are waiting for, go watch it and treat yourself a must deserved ecstatic experience.

Thank you for reading.

Cheers.

©Gladiator007

**this is only movie review..DVD version will be released in March,2009.

*** This review also been posted at DOOYOO, HELIUM and also in CIAO.COM under same username.***