Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Spoilers ahead.



A few people I know, (some have seen the movie, others not) share the same experience: their Indian coworkers/friends going out of their ways to bring up the subject and proceed to explain that this is a good movie, but not the best from the great nation of India; and that there are plenty other better Indian movies (see for yourself on IMDB).

That said, I thought it was an OK, overrated movie too. I think the cinematography was only borderline good (quite a few cheap shots taken, especially at the train station, though there are few good ones too). The flashbacks, wasn't organized enough to be easy to follow, and there are quite a few flaws in the plot - for example, I don't think a detective harsh enough to electrocute a teenager would fall for a story as unusual as Jamal's so easily, especially when he admittedly grew up a street crook.

But at the end of the day, it was the story that saved the entire production. In my opinion, it's not about India or Indian movie or the slum of Mumbai - it is a love story about a boy overcoming overwhelming odds to win a girl. India was probably the choice of backdrop where crapper skipping religious killing police torturing (for a TV show) may be marginally believable; though sadly no, it's not. I am not convinced police beating would take place for that purpose. I am not convinced the boy would stay in love with that girl for so long even though he barely spent time with her. In fact we know next to nothing about Latika, there was simply no character building on her part at all. For that matter, for a love story, too much has been put into the boy's struggle and not much about the relationship, and that's the fault of the director.

The title of the movie says as much about the story as the movie itself - started off as an underdog, moved on to become the big winner. All in all, it was pretty entertaining, especially when Ganesh walks up to you and explains how it is a good film, but not India's best.