[malkers]

Hoping to see this tonight will report back with what I thought but the preview I saw last week looked pretty funny!

http://en.wikipedia....dog_Millionaire

[ChrisJ]

I saw it last week. It's a good one.

Very funny scene involving an autograph hunt of a certain megastar - but I won't spoil it.  

Very well written story. . .

Chris.

[malkers]

Wonderful movie, recommend to everyone except John.sw.

Best I've seen in a long long time, make damn sure you all get to see it if you get the chance!

[priya]

Golden Globe Awards - Slumdog Millionaire.

[torryquine]

malkers, on Jan 9 2009, 11:06 PM, said:

Wonderful movie, recommend to everyone except John.sw.

Best I've seen in a long long time, make damn sure you all get to see it if you get the chance!

Same here, superb in every way - great soundtrack too.  But why would John not like it?

[malkers]

torryquine, on Jan 12 2009, 12:42 PM, said:

Same here, superb in every way - great soundtrack too.  But why would John not like it?

Well I think he would but he says he never bothers going to see films that get overhyped, I often don't either but this one was worth it, I guess I'd have found it a bit less enjoyable if I hadn't experienced India though as there are so many classic Indianisms that normal folk just wouldn't get

Agree, soundtrack is ace too!

[torryquine]

ChrisJ, on Jan 9 2009, 01:07 PM, said:

I saw it last week. It's a good one.

Very funny scene involving an autograph hunt of a certain megastar - but I won't spoil it.  

Very well written story. . .

Chris.

That certain megastar doesn't appear to like the film...

http://news.bbc.co.u...sia/7829985.stm

[malkers]

torryquine, on Jan 15 2009, 11:57 AM, said:

That certain megastar doesn't appear to like the film...

http://news.bbc.co.u...sia/7829985.stm

Well he does have a bit of a point, it's hardly a film that would boost tourism I guess but for those of us who've travelled India it brings back some wonderful memories!

[ChrisJ]

torryquine, on Jan 15 2009, 11:57 AM, said:

That certain megastar doesn't appear to like the film...

http://news.bbc.co.u...sia/7829985.stm

Or does he?  

http://news.bbc.co.u...sia/7832705.stm

[Somerset]

I heard a rumor that the movie hasn't yet been released in India. Is that true, and if so, why not? Is it from the distributors side or the Indian side?

[sadhuji]

the latest information is that it has been nominated in as many as 10 categories for the oscars - wonderful feeling ...

[john.sw]

I'll be watching the film next week, and intend to enjoy it whether I like it or not!

The writer, Old Sedberghian, Simon Beaufoy, also penned The Full Monty, so I'm hoping for something equally entertaining!

[dzibead]

Saw it this evening and loved it!

[priya]

Somerset, on Jan 22 2009, 03:59 PM, said:

I heard a rumor that the movie hasn't yet been released in India. Is that true, and if so, why not? Is it from the distributors side or the Indian side?

Evidently it premiered in India last evening.

[malkers]

Somerset, on Jan 22 2009, 01:59 PM, said:

I heard a rumor that the movie hasn't yet been released in India. Is that true, and if so, why not? Is it from the distributors side or the Indian side?

well, although it is set in India, mostly filmed in Mumbai, contains 99.9% Indians, its actually a British film!

[torryquine]

Not everyone likes the film, this is one reation:

http://news.bbc.co.u...sia/7843960.stm

I'd be interested to hear what our India friends think

[dzibead]

QUOTE:  "Boyle is being roasted by some critics for taking an easy  shortcut and "using" poverty to serve up a  we-are-poor-but-we-are-happy story."  ... "I have no issues with Boyle's cheery depiction of the  resilience of slum children and the sunny side of slum life: it is part of the  unchanging popular oriental stereotype of poverty equals slums equals dirty,  smiling children. Been there, seen that.

"We-are-poor-but-we-are-happy"??? "cheery depiction of the resiliance of slum children"?  That's not the message I got from the movie. I think the reviewer has a preconceived idea of what he expected the Westerner director's and screenwriter's "take" to be, and he's projected that onto the film, because "we-are-poor-but-we-are-happy" is NOT the point of this film.

QUOTE:  "I suspect what Boyle tries to do is a Bollywood film - the  dirt-poor lost brothers, unrequited love - with dollops of gritty realism. But  at the end of it all, it is a pretty callow copy of a genre which only the  Indians can make with the élan it deserves"

No, the reviewer is missing it again.  He "suspects" that Boyle was trying to do a "Bollywood" movie??? Well, he suspects wrong.  Boyle was certainly not trying to do a "Bollywood" movie, so the lack of "élan" (meaning what? not enough interminable, over-the-top, and completely artifical song-and-dance numbers???) is a ridiculous criticism.  The movie is essentially a "romance" in the broad literary sense of the word - i.e., not solely in the sense of  a formulaic love story although it certainly falls into that sub-genre (boy meets girls, obstacles interfere, they overcome obstacles, they live happily every after);  it's also a picaresque coming-of-age story, and Dickens and Henry Fielding (Tom Jones) certainly nailed that particular sub-genre.  To say, as the reviewer does, that, "The lesson from Slumdog Millionaire is: the 'Bollywood' genre firmly belongs  to India  and no other, and nobody can do it better" is just absurd.

He also misses the point by comparing the movie unfavorably to more serious and sober treatments of the grim and gritty underbelly of Mumbai (and other cities).  This movie not a documentary and it's not a tragic melodrama (e.g., it's not Maqbool), but so what?  This is like criticizing Love's Labour's Lost for not being Romeo and Juliet or King Lear.  Yes, the story-line could have been treated as a serious melodrama, but, let me repeat:   IT'S A ROMANCE!   And that's a perfectly legitimate literary and cinematic genre, and no, Indians do not have a "lock" on it.  I don't think the movie is a masterpiece or the most brilliant thing I've ever seen, but it's damn entertaining and the acting is good.  But people will whine and carp.  Whatever.

[noflylist]

To me, unrealistic story line (all the questions suited his life events) was the turn off! Also, no talk show host worth his salt would make fun of "Cjaiwala" on TV!

[dzibead]

Oh, 'fly, how can you complain about an unrealistic story line?  Didn't you once say somewhere here that 'Dil Se' is your favorite movie?  

[noflylist]

dzibead, on Jan 24 2009, 02:07 AM, said:

Oh, 'fly, how can you complain about an unrealistic story line?  Didn't you once say somewhere here that 'Dil Se' is your favorite movie?  

At least someone here is not suffering from "Short term memory loss aka Gajhini"