watching oscar winner of mumbai

Okay, so I have yet to get used to using Windows Live Writer. I liked how I get to play around with the fonts and how I get to blog without having to be online because I tend to get side-tracked every time I am online. And this leads to me blogging for hours on just one post. But now I get to save it as a draft first and then post into my blog when I am done!

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I thought I would not have anything interesting to update about this week since it was mostly a week full of homework, assignments and tonnes of never-ending classes. But over the weekend, Mom and I finally were able to catch the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”.

Date: 8th March 2009
Venue: Mid Valley
Activity: Watch Slumdog Millionaire by director Danny Boyle, lunch at Little Taiwan, Haagen-Daaz ice-cream for dessert and bought a pair of shoes in Jusco.

Of course this movie is no stranger to anyone. I think it was really a dark horse, winning multiple awards at the Oscars, including the much-coveted Best Picture. But really, I wanted to watch it ever since I heard about its storyline. I enjoy watching rags-to-riches movie, I find it very inspirational and face it, we all need some hope and inspiration in our lives now and then. Plus, when I read that it revolves around the game show, “Who wants to be a millionaire?”, I was curious as to how the film will fold based on this theme.

In short, watching this movie was something like taking a cough medicine. It is potent but it gives you a nasty bitter aftertaste. No, the bitter taste was not because the movie was horrible. In fact, it was anything but that. The taste actually refers to how horrifyingly cruel and real the life of the poor in India.

“Nothing breaks the spirit like poverty” – Becoming Jane the movie

I read before about how this movie caused such a great hoo-ha and controversy over its depiction of the life of the slums in India. However, I am glad this movie did just that. Often, people will try to cover up the negative side and portray the only the positive. Does cover = forgotten = ignorant? Just because no one shows that part of India to the world, does that mean they do not exist? Does that mean they are forgotten by the government? I simply do not understand why they are making such a fuss.

-The main cast recently at the Oscars-

Okay, back to the movie. Yes I did very much like it. It was told in flashback form. The main protagonist, a honest guy called Jamal. Tortured by the police, he reveals how he knew all the answers in WWTBM as many people, including the host of the show (Anil Kapoor) believed he cheated as Jamal came from the slums. I find it a bit unbelievable that his life follows the same chronological order of the questions, y’know, like question 1 was from his childhood, up to question 9, which is about his adulthood.

Like I mentioned, question 1 was about his childhood, growing up in the slums with his mother and elder brother, Salim. And then no. 2 was about how his mother died, beaten to death by protesters and how he met Lathika, another orphan. The 3 orphans were left to fend for one another until they were picked up by Maman, a gangster who owns an orphanage.

This was when the nightmare really begins, well, for me mostly. I am especially affected when it comes to stories about violence towards children. This is because I feel children all have a right to be protected. Their innocence leads to some people manipulating them for money and I find this utterly disgusting. The most horrifying scene, IMO, is when Maman trains the children in the orphanage to sing and there was this boy called Arvind who sings really well. Then, Maman’s right-hand man gets the boy to faint using chloroform before making him blind using a spoon. Well, I don’t really know how he did it because I closed my eyes. “Blind singers give double”. Ugh.

After that terrible incident, both Salim and Jamal ran away and ultimately start working many odd jobs to survive. This include selling stuff on trains illegally, becoming tour guides, stealing and also working in a restaurant. Throughout that period, we see how Salim became obsessed with power and money, causing him to become a gangster in the end.

Beneath all this story about the poor, there is also the subtle LURVE story between Jamal and Lathika. How Jamal kept looking for Lathika, and then lost her, and then found her again and then lose her again. Although this love story seems a pretty run-of-the-mill storyline, it was Jamal’s earnesty and loyalty that left an impression on me.

Dev Patel, the 18-year-old who plays adult Jamal did a

pretty good job. I read somewhere that he was cast in this film because he was not good-looking. LOL. I don’t think he is that bad.

But I think credits should also be given to the child actors in this movie. They made it so believable and these kids can really really act. I find the actors that played Jamal really cute and sweet whilst those that played Salim so so evil.

-See the boy in the front row, extreme right? Isn’t he just adorable?-

This movie, I feel is kind of love it or hate it. I like it a lot and the impact it had on me, despite not being to erase the terrifying scene of mutilating small kids out of my mind. The ending is of course, like finally, Jamal and Lathika ends up together. Oh, they have a Bollywood dance routine at the end of the film, which is like the inevitable essence of every Indian movies. I thought it was entertaining and quite cute. Lol.

So, yes do go and watch it (^___^)!!!!

-and that sums up my day-

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