The music/soundtrack and the technical quality of Slumdog Millionaire is excellent; but, overall, the film is unrealistic and overrated because
1) The director seems to relish showing violence. Some of it (like the police-torture) is quite needless. And why was the boy arrested in the first place? On what charge? Was it realistic?
2) How can a boy growing up in slums speak such accented English? Even if one assumes that the language he actually uses to communicate with the game-show host and the police officer is Hindi (granting the director the creative license to use a language better suited for international audiences), there are two instances where it is stretched too far:
(a) when the boy becomes a ‘guide’ for foreign tourists at the Taj Mahal &
(b) when he becomes a substitute-operator at the callcentre.
3) When the boy uses his ‘lifeline’ during the game-show, his friend discovers that she has forgotten her mobile and has to run back for it. This is plain Bollywood masala! Did the director have to make it so melodramatic?
4) How did the boy know who invented the revolver just by watching his brother use it? How does his friend know about Benjamin Franklin (something which many Americans themselves don’t know!)?
5) Darshan Do Ghanshyam is not written by Surdas. It is written by Gopal Singh Nepali for the movie Narsi Bhagat (1957). This song is also credited as traditional and originally written by 15th century poet Narsi Mehta, whose life that film is based on.
6) After winning the game-show, the boy sits on the railway platform and nobody recognizes him! Considering the popularity of the show, is that realistic?
7) the greatest flaw in the storyline: programmes like Kaun Banega Crorepati and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire are not telecast live. As a result the entire structure of the film becomes unrealistic. For a film that boasts of being realistic such a flaw cannot be overlooked.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
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