4.5 out of 5
Brilliant !
Humbling !
This is a movie about Mumbai, its' "underbelly", it fabric and above all the inhabitants of its' slums. Slumdog Millionaire is a fast-paced drama of human values preserved through despecible acts of hardships, communal tension, exploitation, child-labor, torture and abuse. That the film depicts, almost laments the deplorable side of Mumbai's slum is hardly a central theme, more of a backdrop to the drama, than anything else. The same story could have been written in a village, or a middle-class family, albeit with far lesser impact, the backdrop chosen, fits its' purpose in a very apt manner.
Performances are truly outstanding, espcially the child-actors, they are the clear winners in this saga of human hardships faced in the face of harsh realities. Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto are passable, Anil Kapoor has done most of what he gets these days and Irrfan and Saurabh Shukla are outright misplaced in the movie. But the movie is by far dominated by "actors" that do not appear on-screen, the off-screen ones. Danny Boyle, the director, the cinematographer and the scores by A.R.Rahman, the stuff that legends are made up of.
The movie is nominated for 10 oscars and 12-odd BAFTA's, its' not everyday that such records are achieved, nor will it possibly happen in the next few years. After-all it takes a depression to lend a perfect backdrop to a human story such as Slumdog Millionaire.
A must watch if you love the word "Cinema"
