I heard about
Slumdog Millionaire from a friend, and it turns out it has garnered a whopping ten (10) Academy Awards nominations which only leads me to expect that it's either:
a. so artistic that normal people can't get it
b. so deep that normal people can't get it
c. boring as hell
Well... the good news is, it's actually none of the above.
Slumdog Millionaire is about a young man named Jamal Malik. Jamal is on the verge of winning 20 million rupees from the Indian version of the TV quiz show "Who wants to be a Millionaire?". Since no one has ever gotten that far in the show's history, Jamal is suspected of cheating somehow and is apprehended by the police.
At the precint, the police interrogate Jamal but are unable to get anything out of him even after many forms of brutality and torture. Out of genuine curiosity, the inspector then asks Jamal to tell his side of the story -- and the slumdog's story unfolds.
As if it were written in the stars, almost every question Jamal is asked on the show corresponds to an event that took place in his past. Jamal is not educated, neither is he a genius. In fact, he comes from a very poor family. He and his brother Salim were orphaned early on and so they were forced to make ends meet by engaging in all sorts of monkey business. They have seen much, having been captured by a syndicate which would earn money by having children beg on the streets. In the end though, Jamal and Salim would always somehow escape their dreary fate and then move on to the next challenge life would pose for them.
Slumdog Millionaire is on top of everything, a love story. Jamal meets his true love in childhood, a fellow orphan named Latika. But Jamal and Latika get separated and united so many times that it became impossible to tell what would happen next at a certain point. It is precisely because of love that Jamal finds himself in the seat opposite the host of "Who wants to be a Millionaire?".
Slumdog Millionaire is a powerful film which will keep you glued to your seat since it keeps you asking questions. You just can't wait to find out how or why. When the end credits rolled, the cast started to dance in true Bollywood fashion and I couldn't help but chuckle even after being immersed in such a serious film.
My daughter Keirra has been a fan of Summit Media's Disney's Princess Magazine even before she attended preschool. Disney's Princess Magazine used to come out every other month and she'd always ask me why her older brother would get K-Zone every month while she'd get DP only half the time. Well, starting 2009, DP comes out monthly instead of bi-monthly -- good news for little girls!
I heard about Slumdog Millionaire from a friend, and it turns out it has garnered a whopping ten (10) Academy Awards nominations which only leads me to expect that it's either:
I honestly didn't think I'd like this movie. I mean, I've heard a lot about the book... but the title seemed so shallow. So what if someone loves shopping? Little did I know that the Shopaholic being described here is akin to the malling version of an alcoholic. It's really, truly an addiction.
