Intro
"Ordinary Masala. What's the big deal"That was my comment on Vikas Swarup's "Q &A"
Today I salute the farsighted comment by my dad "The story is cinematic". I always read books from a different perspective and have not thought of alternate possibilities!
Finally, when the potential is being tapped by British, with funding from US, the fiction based in India got the shape of a cinematically well made movie!
A bit about plot
Jamal Malik (Dev Patel in the adult role)is the man on the hotseat in search of fortune. Being the one for whom the rosy side of life is next to impossible, he is quite focussed or obsessed with victory. He is the final participant of the Indian Version of the show "Who wants to be the millionaire". As he was getting closer to INR twenty million,the quiz master (Anil Kapoor)with his prejudiced take on the calibre of an ordinary call centre assistant (sophisticated term for chai wallah) handed him to the Policemen (Irrfan Khan and Saurabh Shukla).Jamal is only one question away from INR 20 Million and the show time is over. Next day the show will continue. Policemen got one night and a few hours of the next day for interrogation. They resort to the "third degree"(This is how the movie start). Finally, the senior policeman decided to give audience to Jamal and he take them through various instances in his life that enabled him with answers. Life in Slum, organised crime, hero worship, child abuse, lost love, riots ---- Jamal came the hard way and by chance almost all questions shooted at him were related to his experience.
Finally - will the slumdog be able to win the show?
Why is he participating in the show? For money or to reach up to his lost love Latika (Freida Pinto)
Thats all the movie about.
For those who read Q & A
Lots of deviations are there in the plot from the original novel. To quote a few,
a) Almost all the questions asked in the show are different from what has been mentioned in the
novel.
b) The hero (in Novel Ram Mohammed Thomas and Jamal in movie) is not a born orphan but he is orphaned during communal riot. In novel, Salim was his friend whom he met in Juvenile Home but in movie, Salim is his brother. Hence, in the movie you wont find Father Timothy, the priest who was a gay - Welldone Boyle, you avoided controversies.
c) There is no advocate Gudiya who was abused by her father Shantaram. Infact, Jamal was telling his story to the policemen only.
I am not making it elaborate, just for your information - lots of differences are made in the plot.
What make it so big -
The answer is simple. It is a "Very different cinematic experience"for western world. Hollywood drama and its treatment are quite different. No wonder, they got excited with the tumultous induction to Bollywoold Spice.
They may not find a crazy fan who dont even mind to jump into the pit full of human excreta to find short cut to reach the superstar for an autograph! (The famous scene which Amitab took as an offence. Do, take this as a spoiler alert from my side)
Vikas Swarup himself describe Dharavi as the place where in people are cramped in 100 Sq Ft. area devoid of natural light or ventillation, where they live like animals and die like insects. There are daily squabbles over inches of space or even for a bucket of water.
The craftsmanship of the Boyle and Cinematographer is evident in giving visual sense to this description through a 2 Min crane shot with minimum distortion where the cop chases the kids from Airport Runway through the slum. Ofcourse, the mood is set by Maestro A R Rahman.
The movie got many such beautiful shots and I do count the cinematography, editing, background scores being the best elements of the movie and wish the creators to grab more accolades.
An item number like "Jai Ho" at the end of the movie where in Hero and Heroine accompanied by dancers go for a bash out of euphoria -- could be something interesting for some one who never watched Indian Movies! But we have seen this before. Blame is on us.
Dev Patel is quite impressive and almost all the cast crews did good enough job. I need to mention Javed (Mahesh Manjrekar)another novel experience for "Goras" where in villains got a ferocious face also (not like alients / godzilla / predators).
Well, do you want some for "eye for details" and goof ups? Only because the movie won many accolades - I am scribbling a bit on this. Anyone who watch movie after reading this can take a walk on this
a) Background scores are good for sure but Rahman used many of the rhythms and tones before in Indian Movies. I dont remember many but it is repititive. By chance I remember, the ring tone of Salim's mobile (which is used atleast four times) is the theme music of "Swadesh". (ofcourse, this does not justify my stand). Leave it to you to add flesh to this point.
b) The story take place during 2006 and the cheque for prize money is dated 2005. I am sure, still it will get realised
c) Why the quiz master is becoming so restless? The novel got the explanation but the movie does not have any explanation
d) Three Muskeeters are there in the syllabus of any Primary School in Mumbai? (Ok, cinematic liberty, Just mentioned)
e) Who wrote "Darshan Do Ghanshyam Nath" ? There are many who still argue that it is written by Gopal Singh Nepali and not Surdas. Also, how Jamal got the answer? Atleast, it is not shown in the movie that Surdas's name is mentioned by any of the character.
f) The kids speaking in Hindi suddenly became experts in English. Also, Jamal is having a British accent. It would have been appropriate if the Hindi dialogues are replaced with English itself. Why Hindi in the beginning?
g) This is contributed by my friend Jay - When Jamal was referring to Pani Puri, the visuals of Dahi Puri is shown (This is heights, we have goof up experts around to catch. So, all directors, be careful.)
To sum up- It is an entertaining movie with some good visuals backed up with good enough music and casting. Might be a novel experience for western world. But we are quite used to it. I dont have a million reason to recommend this strongly but with lots of accolades coming its way, do watch it once.
Ps: Just want to highlight a spoiler. Better to have proper food and watch the movie. Can't explain why - just a hint (Amitab Bachan Scene)
I predict this movie will get minimum 8 Oscar and Rahman will definitely get 2 of them! Best wishes!
