Nazneen's comments on khullamkhulla's
Slumdog Millionaire review


Hi,

I just saw Slumdog Crorepati yesterday & found it brilliant.
In the current era of useless movies like No Entry & Golmaal & the like supposedly hitting box office, this was extremely refreshing.

Did people really miss the brilliance of how this slum boy was able to answer all questions simply due to the experiences in his life? Not intelligence or just plain luck but because each question had significant memories for him & hence he knew the answers. Is that really SO impossible?? The last question (3 musketeers) made me laugh & cry at the same time (or is it just coz I'm pregnant right now?)

I received similar (to the editor) views / comments on the movie with the people I saw it with; that the poverty was overdone, show'd mumbai in bad light, etc... EXCUSE ME... reality check here... there IS such a hugh slum in mumbai EVERYWHERE... street children here (& albeit abroad too) ARE put through such hardships with the temptation of food & shelter. There ARE in reality persons CRAZY enough to do anything to get a glimpse of an Amitabh or a Shahrukh (I've witnessed it myself, living in the Juhu area during the recent marriage in their family & every Sunday evening too!!)

And I LOVED the way the poverty & the slum & the cheap earning tactics were not the main focus, just merely in the backdrop. It said so much more...

Obviously the Golden Globe guys are stupid to have selected this movie for accolades... we, in our secure mumbai homes, ac corporate offices and rush to catch the best movies understand the poverty stricken side of mumbai much better & its obviously over rated. Naturally the movie's been made to suit the pallete of the foreign mindset with great pains taken to create the poverty line as they would like it.

I loved the movie... but then I also was deeply in love with the story of the much hated & albeit forgotten 'Dil Se' & the recent 'Cheeni Kum' for their silly refreshing script & brilliance in ideas.

I loved Slumdog Crorepati, but that's just silly ol me, I guess. Because I didnt pay attention to the racial slurs & the english plaques & the purposeful suggestion of the British in India. I'm just a dumb optimist & positve thinker without a critical bone in my body & loved the revolving around romance & leaning towards fairy tales in the cruel days of today storyline without doing the math of what went on in the theatres in 2006 etc.

Nazneen Madan

January 27, 2009 2:49 PM