Being born in India, not to get carried away in the Slumdog Millionaire frenzy would have been an oddity. Initially I resisted watching the movie, having read about graphic depiction of extreme poverty in the underbelly of Mumbai. I know we have poverty in India, but I would rather stay in blissful ignorance than see a pervert depiction on film and pay for it. Eventually, the hype around the film tipped me over, and it became no longer possible to ignore it, I knew I had to watch it and I finally did. So what do I think of the movie?

Well, the film is certainly different, the young actor Dev Patel definitely is gifted and one can see passion in his eyes- passion and longing for a childhood sweetheart, I give him a 10 for 10 on that. His portrayal of hope over fear and defiance over resignation to fate also came across strong. The new actress Freida Pinto had this innocence, but frankly given the relatively small screen time she got, I don’t think it was enough to leave an indelible mark in the audience. I am surprised on the kind of attention she is getting, may be I am missing something, and the talent hidden in her would prove to be lasting. Will see, time will tell.

Coming to the Oscar’s night last weekend, for the first time I felt as if I had a personal stake in the outcome of the award ceremony. Needless to say I was rooting ( along with my kids who could barely relate to the plot of the movie having been raised in North America all their life) for Slumdog Millionaire. With every Oscar the film won my nervousness actually went up. I told my kids, these initial Oscar’s are good, but what matters finally is if the film wins best Director and Best Motion picture award. Those two are the most important category, I told them. This was history in the making, never before any Indian movie won Oscars like this. I was thinking , probably we are going to lose at the end, and the awards which matters the most will not come to us. It simply looked too good to be true. Actually when AR Rehman won the music awards and performed Jai Ho on stage complete with the typical Bolywood style dancers and fairy tale choreography, in itself was a big pleasant surprise ( BTW I like AR Rehman music,it’s very soothing to your nerves and in a class of its own).
The Oscar night closed with the best motion picture award and the best Director award (Danny Boyle)both going to Slumdog Millionaire. It was surreal, I had to pinch myself to believe it. Dreams do come true sometime, don’t they! Slumdog Millionaire rocks!!!!

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Being born in India, not to get carried away in the Slumdog Millionaire frenzy would have been an oddity. Initially I resisted watching the movie, having read about graphic depiction of extreme poverty in the underbelly of Mumbai. I know we have poverty in India, but I would rather stay in blissful ignorance than see a pervert depiction on film and pay for it. Eventually, the hype around the film tipped me over, and it became no longer possible to ignore it, I knew I had to watch it and I finally did. So what do I think of the movie?

Well, the film is certainly different, the young actor Dev Patel definitely is gifted and one can see passion in his eyes- passion and longing for a childhood sweetheart, I give him a 10 for 10 on that. His portrayal of hope over fear and defiance over resignation to fate also came across strong. The new actress Freida Pinto had this innocence, but frankly given the relatively small screen time she got, I don’t think it was enough to leave an indelible mark in the audience. I am surprised on the kind of attention she is getting, may be I am missing something, and the talent hidden in her would prove to be lasting. Will see, time will tell.

Coming to the Oscar’s night last weekend, for the first time I felt as if I had a personal stake in the outcome of the award ceremony. Needless to say I was rooting ( along with my kids who could barely relate to the plot of the movie having been raised in North America all their life) for Slumdog Millionaire. With every Oscar the film won my nervousness actually went up. I told my kids, these initial Oscar’s are good, but what matters finally is if the film wins best Director and Best Motion picture award. Those two are the most important category, I told them. This was history in the making, never before any Indian movie won Oscars like this. I was thinking , probably we are going to lose at the end, and the awards which matters the most will not come to us. It simply looked too good to be true. Actually when AR Rehman won the music awards and performed Jai Ho on stage complete with the typical Bolywood style dancers and fairy tale choreography, in itself was a big pleasant surprise ( BTW I like AR Rehman music,it’s very soothing to your nerves and in a class of its own).
The Oscar night closed with the best motion picture award and the best Director award (Danny Boyle)both going to Slumdog Millionaire. It was surreal, I had to pinch myself to believe it. Dreams do come true sometime, don’t they! Slumdog Millionaire rocks!!!!