Slumdog Millionaire

I must be one of the last persons to have watched Slumdog Millionaire. Finally saw it today in a theatre that had not more than 15 viewers ! I had not seen either the promos or reviews of the movie : what I did read/watch on the news was about its nominations.

The movie is extremely well-made and depicts a slumdog's life with the harsh realities one generally refuses to associate it with. The coolness with which the movie shows the death of Jamal Malik's mother, the brothers sleeping in tents on huge moulds of garbage, huge pipes or even train-roofs is very honest. There is no pretence, show or exaggeration in the director's treatment of any of these. The pace at which the first half is set convinces us of how normal it is for people to be living a life like Jamaal's. The scenes in which Latika is left behind when she misses the train or Arvind loses his eye send a horrible chill down the spine.  The latter, I thought, was the most horrific scene in the movie.

 

What's good :

1)  The cast, especially the children playing Jamaal, Salim and Latika and the relationships that they share with each other

2) A naked-reality in the depiction of a normal, daily life in the slums

3)  An interesting style of narration, with the story fluctuating between the interrogation in the police station and the game show 

4) A.R.Rahman.

What's not-so-good :

1)  While the ample use of swear words make the movie more realistic, the sudden use of the English language in the most unexpected of situations by the most unlikely people steals the same realism away. 

2) Dev Patel's phoren accent

3) Anil Kapoor's constant cheesy remarks (exaggerative dialogues) during the show

4) Anil Kapoor.

Definitely worth a watch.

A.R Rahman has done a great job. His music complements the pace and style of the movie magnificently. This movie has not offered him much scope, one must admit. It is n't like RDB, Jodhaa Akbar or any Tamil movie where there are abundant situations for him to demonstrate variety in flavour. RDB, for example - Pathshala, Lukka Chuppi , Roobaroo, Khalbalee and the title track - each one had a different emotion. Jodhaa Akbar had romance, while Swades had patriotism. Agreed, ARR has created better music plenty of times before. But through this one, he has excelled in a limited-scope situation. This movie was on slums - the background score did full justice to it. The music in the initial scenes when the kids run from the police, the beautiful mandolin playing over great guitar arrangements in the train scenes (between Jamal and Latika) were very apt. The brothel song(with Alka Yagnik crooning) was successfully depressing and dull; exactly what the situation demanded ; exactly what ARR set out to do. I actually hated the mood and the feeling the song created. Bull's eye. 

  

I don't understand why people have an issue with the movie celebrating India's poverty. Danny Boyle has only shown the truth - with as much dignity as the situation would allow. Why, he hasn't even exaggerated or indulged in any falsehood. Is it the reality being smashed on our faces that we are unhappy about ? I would have thought it obvious that the term 'slumdog' shows our own attitude towards slumdwellers, and not Danny Boyle's imagination running wild or an expression of his own hatred/ spite. Why should n't a film-maker (so what if he's not Indian?) choose this subject and win nominations for the same? Films show so many more hateful things - violence, rape, drug abuse, murder. It is highly ridiculous that Deshdrohi got banned merely because it depicted the MNS hooligans' violent profession. We cannot question an artist's creative freedom; film-makers are not obliged to depict anything at all in specifics, they have as much right to show negativity(read : reality) as optimism, hope or inspiration.

What a waste of education

I took this video over a month ago. This is what my horrible building people do to get rid of the wastes collected after gardening. The huge lawn has ample grass, which Dad infact collects and transports(in his car)  to nearby cowsheds. And this is what they choose to do now. They're bored of co-operating with dad.

I could not believe my eyes. How dare these people call themselves educated ?? I have completely failed in all my attempts to convince the gardener, watchman or the horrible neighbours who bully these people to burn the wastes. It is even worse to watch my otherwise patient father get agitated when they don't listen to him either. All I could do was to hopelessly shoot this video on my cellphone hoping I could show it to some authority. I don't know to whom, yet.

 I thought my father's habit of packing all the grass off to nearby cow-sheds was a great idea, and he did this job quite diligently for a while. Not any longer, thanks to the new orders our gardener has. I'm now sure our neighbours thought they were doing us a favour by co-operating, because I still see absolutely NO reason for them to suddenly go back to their old ways of burning up wastes. How lame and cheap can people get? 

 The fire goes on for about an hour, and the smoke for atleast 4 hours afterwards. Needless to say, the whole building is smokey by then. There are about a 100 flats in my building. No bugger comes forward to say a word. 'Pollution' and 'global warming' seem too far-fetched to them. They treat it like some text-book crap they memorised for exams and forgot about, later. My building loves fire. Every year, on 31st of December, they set the 'Old Man' (a stupid hay-stuffed baffoon) to fire, watch and applaud cheerfully. What's worse, they make small children (aged 5-15) collect money for the same. Like it was some useful donation for some charitable purpose. Again, pointing out things like 'pollution' to these kids has never worked.

Coming back to this fire incident, I felt sure that it would be unlawful to set wastes to fire in a residential area. I later found out that I was right. Problem is, the BMC does not enforce this law.  

I feel absolutely helpless. If you have any idea of what I can do, please share it with me. I know that this incident will happen yet again. I still have no idea how to prevent it. The only thing I can think of now is to call up the fire engine when this happens again (in the hope that they'l have some kind of fire-accident prevention funda). 

All that might be needed, I think, is for some authority to come and warn these guys. My father or I are not the voice that they will listen to . The BMC will not come. They're the ones who find it convenient to deal with garbage in the form of ashes(reduced mass) than in their entirety. (The gardener told me so.)  Please drop in a word if you have any idea/suggestion.

How dare these people celebrate 'Republic Day' (as they did today),  salute the flag and even feel proud of their 'patriotism'.

Happy New Year

Wish you a Happy New Year.

With just four months of college left, the year will bring in a complete change of environment for me. And I hope and trust that by the end of the year my life looks a lot more clearer to me.

Going through a P & P hangover at the moment. I've been watching the 6-hour mini-series BBC adaptation of the classic. 

I shall now return to the beautiful world in Longbourn, Grace-Church Street, Rosings Park and above all, Pemberley. 

P.S - 

Worst(and unfortunately the most often used) PJ-forward sms of the day :

" To all my friends and Relatives who sent me Love, prosperity and Best Wishes for 2008...

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It didn't work..

Please send CASH for 2009. "

Blah.