I decided to watch Slumdog Millionaire yesterday — since it’s about Mumbai & had won the critic’s choice award at the Golden Globes this year.
Well, the movie has great screenplay… It was gripping enough for me to watch it without wondering about time. Pluses would include good acting & a realistic portrayal of the dark & violent underbelly of Mumbai. But the plot has quite a few holes which I didn’t expect from a highly rated movie (#40 on the IMDB list). Also I am not sure what I should be taking away from the movie. Jamaal’s story, if it was about an underdog triumphing against all odds wasn’t inspiring enough. It tells us about poverty, crime & their unholy nexus but we already know about it. Also some scenes being shot in English while others in Hindi didn’t go too well for me. Why not completely in Bambaiya Hindi (at least as a version for the Indian audience)? I cannot say much about the music since Rahman’s scores were fleeting during the movie & would require separate listening.
This movie might well appeal to the West as they can see poverty, slums, filth, crime & prostitution alongside posh call centres & reality game shows promising millions. The proverbial – India with all its contradictions! Was I expecting more from the movie? Definitely since it is being billed as a contender for an Oscar or two!
Anyway, I think I’ll remember the movie the most for young Jamaal’s potty dive. It deserves 10/10 for its gross factor. The scene goes -
Young Jamaal is in a make-shift rickety public toilet attending to his business when he hears a frenzy building up outside, where, apparently Amitabh Bachchan is arriving in a helicopter. Since the door seems to be locked from outside, he decides to make his way out from the only accessible opening – the one below. He holds a dog-eared photograph of Amitabh (which he was carrying to the loo) high above his head & covers his nose with the other & dives into the pool of shit. The photograph survives the ordeal while Jamaal goes head deep. He wades out, covered in shit & runs into the gathering crowd which hastily gives way on being elbowed by shit boy. Unchallenged, he triumphantly runs upto to ‘Amitabh’ & gets that dream autograph on his only clean possession!
I daresay this scene promises to became as infamous as the ear cutting scene from Reservoir Dogs. I am wondering – is it the ‘dog’ moniker which invites such scenes to movies!?
Go watch 
Update: I read that the Indian version is called Slumdog Crorepati (WTF?) & is completely in Hindi. The movie (both versions) releases in India on Jan 23, 2008.
