On New Year's Day in San Francisco I was fortunate enough to see Slumdog Millionaire with Carola. And although there was an annoying couple sitting beside us ... she was heavily pregnant and very indignant towards any noise producing form of utterance including laughs and breathing, let alone whispered comments ... and I suspect that even our restricting ourselves to the 'vah re vah' gesture of appreciation did not sit with her too well ... and then again, apart from the fact that the dialogues were in Hindi which she likely did not understand and had to be satisfied with whatever the subtitles offered, she missed a lot of the movie anyway - about 4-7 levels of meaning - due to her not being well-versed in Hindi film culture. But enough of voicing my still lingering annoyance - the more important thing is: Go Watch That Movie!!
It is really great film, as even the Western and more specifically US film fraternity has in the meantime acknowledged. The movie received, I think, four Golden Globes - one for the terrific music by A. R. Rahman, a much deserved acknowledgement of his genius - several Critics Choice Awards, the Screen Actor's Guild Award, the Producer's Award and is currently nominated for 10 Academy Awards. The director, of course is not Indian, but then again, that gives the movie the option to run in the main categories in the first place. It is also currently in the top 5. And if you watch it, let me tell you, that the most appalling scene in the first half is shot on real location, but the substance is peanut butter and chocolate....
However, my real point is that if this movie should get an Oscar, it is actually an award for Amitabh Bachchans lifetime achievements. I admit, I still have to read the novel on which it is based, but the filmic adaptation is very much a homage to the veteran and still very active megastar in Hindi movies. He is not only evoked on screen as the super hero of the slum kids, and as the host of the first season of the Indian version of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' - 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (the second season, by the way, was hosted by SRK) but the whole movie setup was also very much a reliving of the 1970s and 1980s movies he made so famous - the 'Angry Young Man' movies, full on with redemption of the 'good at heart but crook by circumstances character' just before he dies to save the really good guy who then gets reunited with his love interest. If this sounds cheesy, it is only due to the one-line-summary. Go watch the movie and then go home and watch Sholay, or Zanjeer, or Coolie ...
Slumdog Millionaire is of course also a very contemporary movie - and please take note of the terrific police inspector played by Irrfan Khan (who will come to the screens in February again as Billu Barber with SRK) ... he is one of Indias currently best Charakterdarsteller! I have yet to see a bad performance by him.
So you go watch, I get the novel, then watch the film again and should I ever find the time these coming month will look into the option of refining my above claim into an essay for the Journal of South Asian Popular Culture ... and we all know that this will never happen.... because, writing blogs like this, is also just one way of my not really favorite but definitely dominant form of time pass: procrastination
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