Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire

Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it?
A) He cheated, B) He's lucky, C) He's a genius, D) It is written.




Title Slumdog Millionaire

User Rating 8.6/10 (IMDB as of 3/3/2009)


Release date(s)
12 November 2008 (US, limited)
9 January 2009 (UK)
23 January 2009 (India)
23 January 2009 (US, wide)

Running time 120 min.
Country United Kingdom & India
Languages English, Hindi
Budget $15 million
Gross revenue $189,424,479




The award winning story revolves around the life story of Jamal Malik, an eighteen year orphan from slums of Mumbai who is about to experience the biggest day in his life. He takes part in the Television show “Who wants to be a millionaire (Indian Version - Kaun Banega Crorepati)” and makes his way to the top giving precise answers to all the questions. When the show breaks for the night leaving one question to be answered to hit the grand prize, he is arrested by the police in suspicion of cheating, since its unlikely for a non-genius street orphan to make the way to the top of such a program where intelligent folk such as professors and doctors have failed to make it to the top. The police tortures and interrogates Jamal Malik to figure out how he answered all the questions precisely, where they expect it to be a master minded crime. In order to prove his innocence and to explain how he knew all the correct answers, Jamal Malik reveals incidents of his life in the slums during his childhood and teen ages. These incidents are conveyed throughout the movie as flash backs and reveals how he got to knew all the answers from his life long experiences.





The movie is based on the book “Q & A” by Vikas Swarup published in 2005. The movie is directed by Dannie Boyle and Loveleen Tandan. This movie so far grabbed 64 awards and 28 nominations including 8 awards out of 10 at Oscars, 4 golden globe awards, and seven out of eleven BAFTA Awards.

Slumdog Millionaire was first shown at the Telluride Film Festival on 30 August 2008, where it was positively received by audiences, generating "strong buzz". The film also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2008, where it was "the first widely acknowledged popular success" of the festival, winning the People's Choice Award. Slumdog Millionaire debuted with a limited North American release on 12 November 2008, followed by a nationwide release in the United States on 23 January 2009.





Soundtrack
Another Fantastic Score from A.R. Rahman



The Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman who planned the score over two months and completed it in two weeks. Rahman won the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and won two out of the three nominations for the Academy Awards, including one for Best Original Score and one for Best Original Song, the song "O... Saya" got a nomination shared with M.I.A. and the other song "Jai Ho" won the award and was shared with lyricist Gulzar. The soundtrack was released on M.I.A.'s record label N.E.E.T. Radio Sargam termed the soundtrack "magnum opus and the entire world is known to this fact."





Cast




Jamal Malik
Dev Patel as 18 Year old Jamal Malik
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as Youngest Jamal
Tanay Chheda as Middle Jamal

Latika
Freida Pinto as Latika, the girl with whom Jamal is in love.
Rubina Ali as Youngest Latika. Rubina is a child from the Mumbai slums in real life.
Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar as Middle Latika

Salim
Madhur Mittal as Salim, Jamal's elder brother.
Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as Youngest Salim. Azharuddin is a child from the Mumbai slums in real life.
Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala as Middle Salim

Show Cast
Anil Kapoor as Prem Kumar, the game show host.
Rajendranath Zutshi as the Millionaire show producer

Police
Irrfan Khan as the Police Inspector
Saurabh Shukla as Constable Srinivas

Gangsters
Mahesh Manjrekar as Javed
Ankur Vikal as Maman

Slums Cast
Sanchita Choudhary as Jamal's mother
Shah Rukh Munshi as a slum kid. Shah Rukh is a child from the Mumbai slums in real life.
Mozhim Shakim Sheikh Qureshi as a crippled slum kid. Mozhim Shakim is a child from the Mumbai slums in real life.





This movie is sort of the movie that makes you watch till the end without a pause. Instead of being stuck inside the typical Hindi movie frame, the directors have been successful in providing a new experience to the viewers.
This is indeed a good movie that is worth all the awards and nominations.
Watch it if you still didn’t watch this.



Source Links

Official Site
IMDB
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