Slumdog Millionaire Review

Slumdog Millionaire

By now you know it won “BEST PICTURE” at the Academy Awards last night along with a slew of other awards. Here is “MY TAKE” on the movie.

Every once in a while a movie comes around that is not big budget, or big ticket, with no actors you have ever heard of before.. Case and point, here is the cast of the movie:
(From IMDB.COM)
Cast

(Cast overview, first billed only)

Dev Patel … Jamal K. Malik
Anil Kapoor … Prem Kumar
Saurabh Shukla … Sergeant Srinivas
Rajendranath Zutshi … Director (as Raj Zutshi)
Jeneva Talwar … Vision Mixer
Freida Pinto … Latika
Irrfan Khan … Police Inspector
Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail … Youngest Salim
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar … Youngest Jamal
Sunil Kumar Agrawal … Mr Chi (as Sunil Aggarwal)
Jira Banjara … Airport Security Guard #1
Sheikh Wali … Airport Security Guard #2
Mahesh Manjrekar … Javed
Sanchita Choudhary … Jamal’s Mother
Himanshu Tyagi … Mr Nanda
Do you know any of them? Hell IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) Doesn’t even have pictures for any of the actors.

There is not one thing I can point out that I can tell you that makes this the great movie it is. There are several aspects that put it togethor;

The Actors,
The Cinimetography
The Music
India…

It’s a movie about life, about not giving up on your dreams even if you have to jump into a outhouse “STUFF” to get the autograph of a person outside of your social caste.  Always having a “Look Forward” attitude and never giving up on yourself and your team.

In the commercials you will see “Who wants to be a Millionaire”, this really is a tool, and really is not the major plot line. I won’t spoil it, but I love the way the directors Danny Boyle & Loveleen Tandan (co-director: India) weaved the story.

The Colors, the camera work, things that we in America turn a blind eye to. The Camera work on the trains, BEAUTIFUL, if not dazzling in a way never seen before.

The India countryside, good and bad, was shot to where you felt you were there. Just Amazing.

The Soundtrack, which btw I am listening to now, if you can get it, “DO IT”.. Powerful, thumping, amazing jams, beats etc. Nothing that we here in the States compares. But see the movie first to put it into context. Also don’t walk out at the end, wait for the credits. Pure Bollywood. 🙂

It’s a big world out there, this is not to say we don’t have our places in our Country that don’t need our attention, but when I watch the news about our economy right now, then I see this? It really puts things into perspective.

Go see the movie, do yourself a favor, this is not a hype movie, hell it only barely played here in the States at festivals before Fox Searchlight took it on, and they are out of business now.

See a movie about inspiration, love and dedication, and most of all, DESTINY.

6 out of 5 Anchors..