Review : Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Spellbound!


Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Drama | Romance | Crime



I was really spellbound the moment i finished watching this movie.I couldn't come up with any better word on describing it either.
So,i am back on being the first in watching and reviewing a movie which i feel i have watched it before a major portion of India could have.I say i'm back because last thursday, just around the same time i wrote the movie review of will smith's Seven Pounds wherein i was the first to watch it before a major portion of people could on a greater and global scale.
I'm really proud on doing this and i'm not at all feeling bad for being over proud too.

Firstly,I would like to thank a ton for the music spearhead of India, A.R.Rahman for his intelligent choosing of composing music for a brilliant and marvellous script.Many of you could hopefully understand what i'm trying to say.

And for the people who have set their anthem as this movie's soundtrack for the past few days just after the news release regarding the announcement of A.R.Rahman's nomination for the Golden globe awards, that the song "Aaj Ki Raat" from the movie Don(2006) is not a lift or copy but is included in the soundtrack because the song(along with the music video featuring the Don movie artists) is showed on the televison in a scene.


So coming back to reviewing the movie,
This movie is a story of a boy named Jamal Malik born and brought up in the slums going on to win '20 million rupees' on India's so called biggest game show "Who wants to be a millionaire?".
As the protagonist says he is not a genius and is not quite worthy of winning the prize money.On the first day of the air,Jamal goes on to win 10 million and show breaks for the day and at the end of which police arrest Jamal on means of cheating for the fact how an uneducated slumdog could answer all the questions.
What follows is the narration of Jamal of his life and how he could possibly answer the questions put forth to him on the game show.There is some luck involved here for him to get all this questions too.

Though the movie is an inspiration from Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A,Danny Boyle has masterfully created and directed a movie that is set to create new standards in world cinema merely for the crisp narration and the jawdropping background score and an eye popping cinematography.Everything is brilliant.This movie should have been given some publicity in India atleast because this is a real entertainer and also pretty much a thought provoker.

Some portions pf the movie was shot using digicam so that the Indian crowd would never know that a movie is being shot so as to create unwanted havoc and commotion but you will never know this thing while you watch the movie.

Coming to the music department, the movie has music composed and produced by the maestro A.R.Rahman, which at very very few places makes you feel that such western music is never required to support that particular scene but in the major other portions one would just wander how ARR only can compose such stuff.

Among the supporting cast,Anil Kapoor has done a fantabulous job in recreating Big B's magic on the small screen to a bigger and broader one.Irrfaan Khan as his name is spelt has also done a great job.

One thing that might disturb the viewer is the fact that everyone speaks english thought they are uneducated,now come on I know it is an english movie but with the backdrop as India it 'just' seems a little odd that's all nothing else.

There are a lot of things shown which happen and happened in real life (like the scene of hindu-muslim riots and Anil Kapoor asking Jamal not to answer the next question) and which are not quite digestable by any viewer but one needs to have a rationalistic thought.Speaking about rationalism,I being both a rationalist and an atheist couldn't quite forget the last words of Jamal's bro Salim while writing this review.He ended his life saying "God is Great!".

There weren't any more clitches than those mentioned above, and on the whole the movie was worth spending 2 hours for just i had said for seven pounds.

All the actors who portrayed the various characters of the movie did extremely well and deserve a special applause.

The movie is an emotional and realistic drama but the last few minutes of the movie seemed like an edge-of-the-seat thriller.One would also have the feeling of watching an Indian romantic movie towards the later half but then there are other things in the movie which makes you to abolish such thoughts from your mind.

So i once again plead you people not to miss this one also because it will really have an impact on you.

Thanks again for reading through this review,i hope you people like both this and the movie and come and share your thoughts and write your comments.

Review : Seven Pounds (2008)

Will Smith all the way!

Genre : Drama
Rating : 3.5/5

I had the honor of watching this movie through a special personal screening at my home on the eve of the official worldwide release of the movie.When I say honor,i mean it truly because this movie not only changed the lives of its seven characters according to the plot but also my thoughts about English cinema to a great extent.

Any Indian viewer could start wondering why such scripts don't reach Indian directors and any viewer could walk out of the movie (of course after the movie ends) mesmerized by the way Will Smith portrayed his character in the movie and also by the director (Gabriele Muccino) who also directed "The Pursuit Of Happyness" which is again a classic, for making such a wonderful movie.

The Story goes this way , Ben Thomas (Will Smith) is an MIT grad who has a very disturbing secret and to compensate it impersonates as an IRS agent to go on to change the lives of seven worthy and needy people in a way which they themselves wouldn't have imagined.The protagonist then reveals the reason for which he does all this at the end of the movie,till that time the movie goes as a slow paced thriller as the viewer is given enough amount of time to think of the possible reasons.I say this because the run time of this movie is a little over 2 hours and one doesn't feel bored.People might wonder how a drama could hold them on to their seats without losing their patience.

The Director has been successful in making Will Smith do what he is actually good at - "Drama" after the latter gave a try at Action,where he didn't click much and also Comedy,where he failed miserably.

The Cinematography and the background music do their parts perfectly to deliver a well crafted emotional drama.Will Smith made me cry along with him in "Pursuit Of Happyness" and he does it in this movie too.

Coming to the flaws in the movie,nothing big but after sitting through the movie anyone would feel that the time given to Rosario Dawson-Will Smith should have been reduced and all the seven characters should have been introduced properly and also the things which Will Smith does to them should have been shown properly, apart from this one cannot find any major mistakes.

All in all , Seven Pounds is a movie worth spending 2 hours for and will be quite a enormous loss to any ardent movie watcher if missed and also for the people who are very particular in watching good movies, this is the movie for the month.

For the people who watched the sci-fi drama "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and still survived,this drama is way better than that one.

Also to look out for this month is Jim Carrey's "Yes Man!" which could prove to be a heavy competitor to Seven Pounds for the movie of the month.

Thank You for reading through my review , please post your views also and a big please for "Don't Miss This Movie!".