TWO REVIEWS : OUTSIDER'S VIEWPOINTS
REVIEW 1
Last Sunday, we watched "Slumdog Millionaire", the multiple Academy award winning movie, directed by Danny Boyle. Boyle, being a British citizen depicts the poverty of India and Mumbai fairly realistically.
The way the story is unravelled is interesting : Jamal Malik answers questions on Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) that are intrinsically linked to incidents in his life. Now, I want to read the novel to see how Vikas Swarup has built up the tale ! The host Prem Kumar cannot believe that a tea vendor at a call centre can answer the tougher questions in the show and so he asks the police to interrogate him to find out how he knows the answers.
Jamal's story of his life emerges during the interrogation. It is the story of any poor struggler in Mumbai, a tale of communal riots, growing up in filth and seeing the worser side of the city. It is a pity that Boyle has chosen only to show the seamier side of life in Mumbai, because it is also the city of opportunities which can make a hero out of a fortunate few.
Jamal and his brother Salim have only each other for company. In my opinion, it is the older Salim who is the more interesting character in the movie. He bosses around Jamal, cajoling and coaxing him to get on with life on at least two occasions. Salim also understands the harsh life in the city.
When they are young, Salim is unconcerned about taking in Latika, a young girl who stands drenched in the monsoon rain. Jamal, however, is sympathetic and so the group of two become "The Three Musketeers" and in the movie it is an important fact that Jamal only knows the names of two of the musketeers. The name of the third musketeer is the final question in KBC !
A "benefactor" called Maman takes the kids to an orphanage and the three of them cannot believe their luck. As if with a sense of foreboding, Latika says that if she gets a second helping of food, it would mean that the man is a genuine well wisher ! Of course, he is not : he teaches the kids to beg and Salim, the sharp boy becomes a supervisor to the others, asking Latika to carry a young baby, saying that she will earn triple due to the sympathy factor.
In one of the most gut wrenching scenes of the movie, Maman likes the singing of bhajans of a young boy and blinds him so that he will earn more money ! Salim throws up when he sees this and when Jamal is called to sing, he maims Maman's helper and the three of them run away. However, Latika is caught and grows up in Maman's captivity.
Meanwhile, Salim and Jamal move from one place to another on trains, selling foodstuff and conning people in Agra, acting as guides. The children are now adolescents, played by self confident young school children.
I could see that there was a difference between the actors : the children from the slums playing the young Salim, Jamal and Latika show a raw edge that looks real on the screen. In contrast, the adolescent Salim and Jamal are played by English speaking school children. I feel that the raw edge disappears and in its place is a suave sophistication of English educated school students that Boyle cannot eliminate. The self confident way in which Jamal says that Mumtaz died in a boating accident to a foreign couple clearly shows the difference ! I doubt whether Jamal would have shown the same confidence.
Jamal and Salim come back and Jamal searches for Latika, meeting her thanks to the blind friend who is still singing near a subway. Maman, looking for revenge, also comes there and thinks he has caught Salim and Jamal, but Salim shoots him and thus takes to crime and the underworld. It is a turning point in their lives. Salim becomes a henchman of a don and Latika is the don's wife.
Jamal, isolated from crime, takes up small jobs and becomes a tea vendor to a call centre. One of the assignments is for the quiz program KBC. In the hope of reaching Latika, he decides to try his luck via the show and using insider information gets through to the hot seat and takes up the quiz program. He also contacts Salim using the called numbers in the quiz show.
The character of Jamal has an almost philosophical detachment for money. He wants to win, only so that he can reach Latika. Like all good Hindi movies, that is what happens in the end.
I am not surprised that the movie won the Best Editing Academy Award : the cuts from the quiz show to the incidents in Jamal's life are an interesting experiment.
I have one point with Boyle though : the final five minutes where Jamal is shown resting alone in the railway platform of VT (now CST) station is unlikely to happen. How can a multi million rupee prize winner hope to be anonymous so quickly after the show ?! That was rather unrealistic.
I found the direction good. Boyle shows a diffident Jamal in the quiz show, who is also resilient. Salim emerges as a hot headed man who will do anything for his near and dear ones. Frieda Pinto as Latika looks good. Anil Kapoor hams it up as Prem Kumar and the other cameos by Irrfan Khan and other actors are also good.
Danny Boyle has shown the ugly side of Mumbai and developed a few interesting characters. All in all, Slumdog Millionaire is a movie worth watching once.
REVIEW 2
While travelling to work, I recently finished reading "The Inscrutable Americans" written by Anurag Mathur. The book is a hilarious examination of the clash of cultures.
Boyle represented the British view of India. Anurag Mathur shows the Indian view of America and the results are equally good in this case ! Both represent outsiders
A "hair oil expert" Gopal from Jajau travels to America to increase his education and meets Randy, a typical American. Gopal gradually becomes familiar with the American way of life and Randy also learns a bit of Indian mores and traditions from Gopal.
I visited Europe last year and found that the European sense of discipline continues to be present. Gopal is also mystified that traffic rules are complied with, in America. To that extent, anybody who has visited the West or seen orderly traffic outside India would identify with Gopal !
After a long time, an Indian author made me laugh !
I found one aspect that irritated me : Mathur's gimmick of using letter writing in the present participle ("I am liking ...", "I am having .....", etc.) to make the story progress. It reminds me of the TV serial "Mind your language" (another hilarious show !) and makes the tale artificial.
The situations that Gopal encounters and his responses to them are a scream. I particularly liked his initiation to American football and his marvel at the coin operated machines, whether it is the soft drink dispenser or the washing machine.
Interestingly, Jajau is a town near Agra, and http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/299553/Battle-of-Jajau indicates that there was a battle fought there !
Overall, I would recommend people to pick up a copy of "The Inscrutable Americans" for complete "paisa vasool" reading !
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NOTE:
I had originally written this blog in another site. Since that site is no longer accessible, I am uploading it in this blog at http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/ using the same date as the original blog dates.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
===== COMMON TEXT FOR ALL BLOGS =====
++++++ BEGINS ++++++
When I created my first blog, I thought I was
being clever by being "anonymous" and let my
opinions speak for themselves (see the archive !)
Imagine my embarrassment when I saw my name
displayed ! So now, while I still retain the blog
name as "Anonymous Expressions", I will only
request you to ignore my name and concentrate on
my opinions instead !
ALL COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED
AS THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR OWNERS.
The opinions expressed in the Weblogs are my
personal opinions. Please tell me if you spot any
factual mistakes or don't like the way I have
expressed a view. If I can see your point, I will
correct the mistake. You can email me at
kiran.suma@gmail.com.
++++++ ENDS ++++++
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
REVIEW 1
Last Sunday, we watched "Slumdog Millionaire", the multiple Academy award winning movie, directed by Danny Boyle. Boyle, being a British citizen depicts the poverty of India and Mumbai fairly realistically.
The way the story is unravelled is interesting : Jamal Malik answers questions on Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) that are intrinsically linked to incidents in his life. Now, I want to read the novel to see how Vikas Swarup has built up the tale ! The host Prem Kumar cannot believe that a tea vendor at a call centre can answer the tougher questions in the show and so he asks the police to interrogate him to find out how he knows the answers.
Jamal's story of his life emerges during the interrogation. It is the story of any poor struggler in Mumbai, a tale of communal riots, growing up in filth and seeing the worser side of the city. It is a pity that Boyle has chosen only to show the seamier side of life in Mumbai, because it is also the city of opportunities which can make a hero out of a fortunate few.
Jamal and his brother Salim have only each other for company. In my opinion, it is the older Salim who is the more interesting character in the movie. He bosses around Jamal, cajoling and coaxing him to get on with life on at least two occasions. Salim also understands the harsh life in the city.
When they are young, Salim is unconcerned about taking in Latika, a young girl who stands drenched in the monsoon rain. Jamal, however, is sympathetic and so the group of two become "The Three Musketeers" and in the movie it is an important fact that Jamal only knows the names of two of the musketeers. The name of the third musketeer is the final question in KBC !
A "benefactor" called Maman takes the kids to an orphanage and the three of them cannot believe their luck. As if with a sense of foreboding, Latika says that if she gets a second helping of food, it would mean that the man is a genuine well wisher ! Of course, he is not : he teaches the kids to beg and Salim, the sharp boy becomes a supervisor to the others, asking Latika to carry a young baby, saying that she will earn triple due to the sympathy factor.
In one of the most gut wrenching scenes of the movie, Maman likes the singing of bhajans of a young boy and blinds him so that he will earn more money ! Salim throws up when he sees this and when Jamal is called to sing, he maims Maman's helper and the three of them run away. However, Latika is caught and grows up in Maman's captivity.
Meanwhile, Salim and Jamal move from one place to another on trains, selling foodstuff and conning people in Agra, acting as guides. The children are now adolescents, played by self confident young school children.
I could see that there was a difference between the actors : the children from the slums playing the young Salim, Jamal and Latika show a raw edge that looks real on the screen. In contrast, the adolescent Salim and Jamal are played by English speaking school children. I feel that the raw edge disappears and in its place is a suave sophistication of English educated school students that Boyle cannot eliminate. The self confident way in which Jamal says that Mumtaz died in a boating accident to a foreign couple clearly shows the difference ! I doubt whether Jamal would have shown the same confidence.
Jamal and Salim come back and Jamal searches for Latika, meeting her thanks to the blind friend who is still singing near a subway. Maman, looking for revenge, also comes there and thinks he has caught Salim and Jamal, but Salim shoots him and thus takes to crime and the underworld. It is a turning point in their lives. Salim becomes a henchman of a don and Latika is the don's wife.
Jamal, isolated from crime, takes up small jobs and becomes a tea vendor to a call centre. One of the assignments is for the quiz program KBC. In the hope of reaching Latika, he decides to try his luck via the show and using insider information gets through to the hot seat and takes up the quiz program. He also contacts Salim using the called numbers in the quiz show.
The character of Jamal has an almost philosophical detachment for money. He wants to win, only so that he can reach Latika. Like all good Hindi movies, that is what happens in the end.
I am not surprised that the movie won the Best Editing Academy Award : the cuts from the quiz show to the incidents in Jamal's life are an interesting experiment.
I have one point with Boyle though : the final five minutes where Jamal is shown resting alone in the railway platform of VT (now CST) station is unlikely to happen. How can a multi million rupee prize winner hope to be anonymous so quickly after the show ?! That was rather unrealistic.
I found the direction good. Boyle shows a diffident Jamal in the quiz show, who is also resilient. Salim emerges as a hot headed man who will do anything for his near and dear ones. Frieda Pinto as Latika looks good. Anil Kapoor hams it up as Prem Kumar and the other cameos by Irrfan Khan and other actors are also good.
Danny Boyle has shown the ugly side of Mumbai and developed a few interesting characters. All in all, Slumdog Millionaire is a movie worth watching once.
REVIEW 2
While travelling to work, I recently finished reading "The Inscrutable Americans" written by Anurag Mathur. The book is a hilarious examination of the clash of cultures.
Boyle represented the British view of India. Anurag Mathur shows the Indian view of America and the results are equally good in this case ! Both represent outsiders
A "hair oil expert" Gopal from Jajau travels to America to increase his education and meets Randy, a typical American. Gopal gradually becomes familiar with the American way of life and Randy also learns a bit of Indian mores and traditions from Gopal.
I visited Europe last year and found that the European sense of discipline continues to be present. Gopal is also mystified that traffic rules are complied with, in America. To that extent, anybody who has visited the West or seen orderly traffic outside India would identify with Gopal !
After a long time, an Indian author made me laugh !
I found one aspect that irritated me : Mathur's gimmick of using letter writing in the present participle ("I am liking ...", "I am having .....", etc.) to make the story progress. It reminds me of the TV serial "Mind your language" (another hilarious show !) and makes the tale artificial.
The situations that Gopal encounters and his responses to them are a scream. I particularly liked his initiation to American football and his marvel at the coin operated machines, whether it is the soft drink dispenser or the washing machine.
Interestingly, Jajau is a town near Agra, and http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/299553/Battle-of-Jajau indicates that there was a battle fought there !
Overall, I would recommend people to pick up a copy of "The Inscrutable Americans" for complete "paisa vasool" reading !
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
NOTE:
I had originally written this blog in another site. Since that site is no longer accessible, I am uploading it in this blog at http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/ using the same date as the original blog dates.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
===== COMMON TEXT FOR ALL BLOGS =====
++++++ BEGINS ++++++
When I created my first blog, I thought I was
being clever by being "anonymous" and let my
opinions speak for themselves (see the archive !)
Imagine my embarrassment when I saw my name
displayed ! So now, while I still retain the blog
name as "Anonymous Expressions", I will only
request you to ignore my name and concentrate on
my opinions instead !
ALL COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED
AS THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR OWNERS.
The opinions expressed in the Weblogs are my
personal opinions. Please tell me if you spot any
factual mistakes or don't like the way I have
expressed a view. If I can see your point, I will
correct the mistake. You can email me at
kiran.suma@gmail.com.
++++++ ENDS ++++++
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
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