Slumdog Millionaire a movie made popular by the Golden Globe Wins, Oscar Nominations and a lot of discussion in Media for good as well as bad reasons. There have been movies made earlier about the life in Mumbai slums, but this one is special because this one is directed by a foreigner Danny Boyle. The movie is based on a novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup and talks about the journey of two kids Jamal and Salim from childhood to boyhood to adulthood. It's the story of their survival and how Jamal ends up having all the right answers on one of India's biggest quiz show Who Wants to Become a Millionaire. How does he know all the answers? He has not read them anywhere, he has neither heard about them from someone nor he is cheating. Life has taught him all the answers and how is the screenplay of Slumdog Millionaire.
Jamal is interrogated by the Police on charges of cheating in the game show and the entire is movie is about Jamal narrating the Police how he knew those answers. Each question asked by Prem (Anil Kapoor) in the show is related to some significant incident in his life and that is how he knows the answers. The story starts from Jamal and Salim two kid brothers trying to survive in the slums of Mumbai in the middle of poverty and crime. In their bid to survival they meet Latika and Jamal finds himself attached to her. The movie like all other bollywood movies is about love and hate, good and evil, separation and reunion and in the end there is hope. Hope that a boy from slum can be a millionaire overnight.
We have seen two boys running after a train and then growing old in many Hindi movies. Danny Boyle shows how difficult it is grow old for two orphan kids in this bad bad world. Many scenes in the movie look like a tribute to 70s Hindi cinema. The kids have acted well and are true stars of the film. The screenplay is brilliant and has been supported well by able direction and top notch cinematography. A R Rehman's soundtrack takes the narrative to entirely different level. Danny has used Rehman's talent very well for his film.
I have heard many opinions about the film before and after watching the movie and would suggest don't by the opinions you hear in this case because at many occasions the opinions might be biased because of the fact that the film is made by a foreigner. I would suggest everyone to watch the movie and form there own opinion or better just enjoy the journey of Jamal and Salim. For the first time in my life I was watching a movie alone in a theater and it didn't bother me, I found the movie so gripping. Would go with 9 out of 10 for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire and wish A R Rehman all the best for Oscars.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Find Him. Kill Him.
A man wakes up in a room and is not able to recognize where he is. He enters the bathroom, with a perplexed look on his face. He looks confused from his body language. He reads the sticker pasted on the mirror in the bathroom, "TAKE OFF T-SHIRT". He follows the instruction and takes off his t-shirt, looking even more surprised. While taking of his t-shirt first thing he sees "REVENGE" written on his stomach. Even more surprised, he takes his t-shirt off and now he knows what is it all about. Now he knows, "KALPANA WAS MURDERED" "FIND HIM" KILL HIM" "GHAJINI". The man is full of pain and anger and he screams, may be to ease his pain and anger. Now the man knows, he is Sanjay Singhania, love of his life Kalpana was murdered and the only thing he knows is the name of the murderer, GHAJINI. To make things worse, Sanjay is suffering from short term memory loss and can't remember anything for more than 15 Mins.
If you have a bad memory and want to remember something important you write it down. Your brain is not able to remember things so you build your memory in the form of notes. That's exactly our hero does in Ghajini and that's what Guy Pearce did in Memento. So what, Ghajini is not Memento and it's good that nobody in the movie is trying to match it with Memento. I don't think we have guys like Christopher Nolan in bollywood. Back to Ghajini. I personally found the movie well made and everyone has acted their parts very well. The chemistry between Amir and Asin is a treat to watch.
Amir Khan has already proved his acting skills many times and a good performance was expected out of him and he did brilliantly both as a sophisticated business man smitten by an upcoming model and as a disabled man in pursuit of revenge. He is believable when he smile at Asin's innocence as well as when he breaks the neck of people with a single punch. Asin fills the otherwise violent movie with light moments and you love her when she is on the screen. Pradeep Rawat, who played Deva in Lagan and Sultan in Sarfarosh, has done a brilliant job as Ghajini. You can see the fear inside him when he is shouting. Jiah Khan didn't have much to do in the film but wherever she was, she looked convincing. I wish there was more of the Lattoo song. By the way, there weren't any songs needed in the story except may be Kaise Mujhe. The songs seem to be disturbing with the pace of the film. On the other hand it's a good sound track and the magician A R Rehman never fails to deliver the best. I like all the songs, specially Bacchu.
Overall I think Ghajini is a well made film with great acting. The only point against the movie is that it's not one of those feel good films you can watch again and again. It's a disturbing film with so much violence in it. Violence or no violence, this movie deserves a watch. I would rate this one as 8 out of 10.
PS: Don't blame me for not mentioning the Tamil version, I haven't seen it hence can't comment on it.
If you have a bad memory and want to remember something important you write it down. Your brain is not able to remember things so you build your memory in the form of notes. That's exactly our hero does in Ghajini and that's what Guy Pearce did in Memento. So what, Ghajini is not Memento and it's good that nobody in the movie is trying to match it with Memento. I don't think we have guys like Christopher Nolan in bollywood. Back to Ghajini. I personally found the movie well made and everyone has acted their parts very well. The chemistry between Amir and Asin is a treat to watch.
Amir Khan has already proved his acting skills many times and a good performance was expected out of him and he did brilliantly both as a sophisticated business man smitten by an upcoming model and as a disabled man in pursuit of revenge. He is believable when he smile at Asin's innocence as well as when he breaks the neck of people with a single punch. Asin fills the otherwise violent movie with light moments and you love her when she is on the screen. Pradeep Rawat, who played Deva in Lagan and Sultan in Sarfarosh, has done a brilliant job as Ghajini. You can see the fear inside him when he is shouting. Jiah Khan didn't have much to do in the film but wherever she was, she looked convincing. I wish there was more of the Lattoo song. By the way, there weren't any songs needed in the story except may be Kaise Mujhe. The songs seem to be disturbing with the pace of the film. On the other hand it's a good sound track and the magician A R Rehman never fails to deliver the best. I like all the songs, specially Bacchu.
Overall I think Ghajini is a well made film with great acting. The only point against the movie is that it's not one of those feel good films you can watch again and again. It's a disturbing film with so much violence in it. Violence or no violence, this movie deserves a watch. I would rate this one as 8 out of 10.
PS: Don't blame me for not mentioning the Tamil version, I haven't seen it hence can't comment on it.
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