Jan 16, 2009 01:59 PM
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(Updated Jan 16, 2009 02:03 PM)
Another variable from the slum rises up high in the Maximum City, giving standing ovation to the Manhattan of human desires and caressing hundreds of aspirations who failed to breathe in the ‘air’ of the Mumbai city.Jamal Malik doesn’t really buys the world with 20 million rupees, but certainly conquers billions of hearts for sure.
He is the Slumdog Millionaire.
Jamal, Salim and Latika, the three musketeers, epitome of the changing cityscape, witnesses Mumbai reaching puberty and gradually stepping into its adulthood. With time, construction becomes more complex, even relations sometimes, especially when heart, mind, testosterone start playing with each other and each other’s. When Colt .25 comes in between, it’s even more complex, because possibilities of bloodstains are higher than any other stains.
One of the very few movies I watched at 5 o’clock in the morning and 1st one before release. So apologies for encouraging piracy, but 1st day last show in theatre will perhaps make up for the act. Anyways, after watching hundred’s of movies from different parts of the world, Danny Boyale still was able to innovate. And at a level which is so so so basic.
Casting, language, subtitles. The biggest of abnormalities are sensibly normal in this no-song flick.(Yet AR Rehman’s music won the globe!). What is that? What is that?
“They are the sounds of innocence.” Believe me.
Danny Boyle, the creator from the UK, has captured some of the most amazing moments that Mumbai could live.Perhaps Mira Nair is the one who gave birth to such moments in ‘Bombay Dreams’, or even before Prakash Mehra did in ‘Zanjeer’. But Jamal and Salim didn’t do the mistake that ‘Vijay’ used to do in late 90’s. *In do behtareen actors ne na sirf phenke hue paise uthaaye, balki logon ko paisa phenkne per majboor bhi kiya, khaaskar Benjamin Franklin ki shakal mein lipete hue hare-hare dollars ko.
But then isn’t it a situation of emotional sanity when yousee someone rising from the st and shake hands with Amitabh Bacchan?Literally. Or learn that there are hundreds of Surdas in the streets of India, and lost because they sang“Darshan Do Ghanshyaam” very well? Nah! That’s not the reason of surprise. Not even for the jury of Golden Globes who made Anil Kapoor stand in his chair and applause four different times.
The policeman, Irfan Khan, has in his eyes, enough questions for Jamal. He did get the answers but he could not do more than feeling speechless. Ankur Vikal, who plays Maman -a begging-industry villain, attracts ample hate from emotional viewers. For critics, he has more such stuff waiting. Loosely based on Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A, the movie is the next masterpiece from Danny, after he made Trainspotting in 1996.
What kind of living would we call the type when you are living up to the expectations of no one, not even one’s own? Perhaps that’s why the result is always surprising in such cases. Isn’t it? I am just asking myself.
There are plenty. Questions.Life poses many of them. Many, you pose on yourself. And few are posed in some game show hosted by Anil Kapoor.
It is written. Answers.The answer is always bookmarked in the chapters of life. It’s just a matter of fact that we forget to place one.Jamal had many of such bookmarks that kept on turning to the right pages, pleasant & unpleasant pages, bitter & sour pages, naked pages, horrible pages, thought-provoking pages, emotionally charged pages, wet-in-tears pages, soaked in blood pages, orphan pages, stolen & robbed pages: all making Jamal the Slumdog Millionaire.
Whatever said and done, there is one idea that is again and again coming to mind. Either a truth or myth, Poor India is sold once again.This time for millions.
I am not sure how much the writing above is a review. I didn’t intend to write one this time. But you might still find it a review after you have watched the movie. You know why?
Because, “It is written”.
