I haven’t read the book, and the Internet informs me that the movie has taken cinematic liberty in interpretation of the written word. I thought it was going to be a movie like Gandhi – set in India, with Indian actors thrown in to make it look realistic, but with western finesse of storytelling and technical excellence that raises it to a higher plane.
In this movie, the attention to detail and visual imagery in bringing slums to celluloid, and camera angles give away the western influence. But at the end of it, it is standard Bollywood fare. Reports suggest that Big B and SRK were both approached to play the character that was eventually played by Anil Kapoor, and I can now see why they didn’t do the film.
What worked for me were two aspects:
The young children who play Jamal, Salim and Latika
Natural and utterly believable, they make their characters come alive. I rooted for them all the way, and was sorry to see them grow up; the adult performances are just no match. Watch out for young Salim’s reaction as he watches Arvind being blinded (the best scene in the movie for me), when he refuses shelter to Latika on the night his mother is killed, and when he and Jamal fall off a running train.
A. R. Rahman’s music
He is the reason why I enjoyed the movie. Brilliant is he in his usage of singers; I liked Alka Yagnik and Ila Arun together in this song. You might remember them singing together here earlier.
Slumdog, I expected (and wanted) you to touch a chord. Never mind.
In this movie, the attention to detail and visual imagery in bringing slums to celluloid, and camera angles give away the western influence. But at the end of it, it is standard Bollywood fare. Reports suggest that Big B and SRK were both approached to play the character that was eventually played by Anil Kapoor, and I can now see why they didn’t do the film.
What worked for me were two aspects:
The young children who play Jamal, Salim and Latika
Natural and utterly believable, they make their characters come alive. I rooted for them all the way, and was sorry to see them grow up; the adult performances are just no match. Watch out for young Salim’s reaction as he watches Arvind being blinded (the best scene in the movie for me), when he refuses shelter to Latika on the night his mother is killed, and when he and Jamal fall off a running train.
A. R. Rahman’s music
He is the reason why I enjoyed the movie. Brilliant is he in his usage of singers; I liked Alka Yagnik and Ila Arun together in this song. You might remember them singing together here earlier.
Slumdog, I expected (and wanted) you to touch a chord. Never mind.
