The Little Movie That Could

It's the little movie that could much like Little Miss Sunshine the other year. Now, however, Slumdog Millionaire is the front runner for this year's Academy Awards. It's been winning most if not all the award shows out there.

I saw it Monday and loved it! The plot is very clever winding it's way around the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The hero, Jamal, a poor young man from the slums of Mumbai becomes a contestant on the show. He is then accused of cheating because he knew all. What's clever about it is that the audience finds out how he knows the various answers through flashbacks into his life in the slums. What a great way to have a story unfold kudos to Danny Boyle and co-director Loveleen Tandan from the book of Vikas Swarup and script by Simon Beaufoy. I love plots that have a backdoor to the story it's much more engaging that way. Another thing that I loved in the movie was that the director and script writer weren't scared of showing the gritty streets and slums of Mumbai. It makes the movie more realistic and "in the moment" I think.

A co-worker in fact commented to me that it was fascinating to see the slum scenes because it's such a different life. She even asked me if people do live like that. To which I told her that's not just in India but in developing countries like the Philippines too. Now isn't it a great when a movie gets an audience to see another way of life? It does provoke people to think and puts some perspective into their life.

While the movie showed Jamal's difficult upbringing, it is however uplifting in the end. Maybe that's what we need now......the triumph of perseverance in the face of adversity.

Edit (1/30 10:45 am): I forgot to mention that one of the outstanding features of this movie is the score by A.R. Rahman. It is a perfect complement to the movie. Movie scenes are made more exciting by the Bollywood-ish music. It's great!

Ask the Audience

I wanted to watch something light and uplifting on Christmas Day, so I put off watching Doubt and went to see Slumdog Millionaire instead. And it did not disappoint. Based on the novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup, it is the story of Jamal Malik(Dev Patel), a boy who grew up in the slums of then-Bombay and became a contestant on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in hopes of reuniting with childhood friend-girl-of-his-dreams Latika (the beautiful Freida Pinto, who reminded me of Rosario Dawson at times). He does so well on the program that he gets hauled off to jail on suspicions of cheating, for he is after all, only an uneducated slumdog. So we get to see how he knows the answers as the story of his life unfolds in flashbacks. Some of it are overreaching and contrived, but I bought into the fairy tale. The supporting cast is marvelous: the always solid Irrfan Khan as the investigating police detective, Madhur Mittal as Jamal's brother Salim (you'll have a love-hate relationship with him), and Anil Kapoor as the slightly sinister and oily game show host. But the bigger stars were the children playing the main characters' younger selves. They gave completely natural and unself-conscious performances. (Cinematography note: I loved the visual images when Jamal was trying to get Salim to let Latika in out of the rain. Lots of other gorgeous shots.) The movie's Bollywood score by A.H. Rahman is so infectious, I might even want a copy of the soundtrack.

The movie is faintly reminiscent of City of God, with the same colors, energy and its depiction of abject poverty but not as graphic or violent. Although I grew up in the Philippines and familiar with the sight of mountains of trash, houses put together with scrap material, kids begging on the streets, women washing clothes in murky waters, it's still a harsh sight to behold. Seeing Mumbai after last month's tragedy was a bit jolting, especially the train station where the film's Bollywood ending occurs. I got a little teary-eyed at the end of this rags-to-riches underdog survival fairy tale love story. And it was the perfect, joyous movie to watch on Christmas Day. Some members of the audience obviously agreed: they applauded at the end.