To start with, "Slumdog Millionaire" is not an Indian movie, it is not about India either, it is about director's perception of the slums in Mumbai, India. Some part of it is bang on target and then most of it is just manufactured emotions manipulated with poverty and saga of love. Is it a brilliant movie? I believe NO, it is very nice effort, a lot of hard work, a lot of technical finesse, but that is about it. It is made in a half-baked 'Bollywood" style, which suits the 'west' as a full-bollywood style is not very palatable to them. So the director chose to narate the story in a style which is neither here nor there but digestible to the western audience. Combine it with some great technical contribution, good music, average acting and you got "Slumdog Millionaire".
A. R. Rahman got two oscars for his efforts, in my view this is not his best work though, he has done much better in past only this time he got to piggy-back on the strong lobbying studio and producers. For me "Slumdog Millionaire" was a vehicle that introduced A. R. Rahman to the west and Oscars Academy.. and I want to mention Gulzar and Poolkutti in the same breath as same is the case for them.
In short, this movie had a good first half and a very average second half, at times I felt the direction was childish and characters were just not Indian enough. (6/10)
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