Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

Yup. I know. I have heard a lot about this movie over the last week or so. People at work are talking about. Friends are also going  ga ga over how great this movie is and so on…

To be honest, I am not really sure why everyone seems to be going so over the top about this movie…

I mean I enjoy Danny Boyle’s movies too. Trainspotting still remains one of the most brilliant movies I have seen till date. I also enjoyed Sunshine, a movie that did not get so much public attention.

So I will choose to disagree with the likes of Raja Sen and point out why I thought the movie was okish and not super like what most people have said.

I like the plot of the movie. Boyle has used a very interesting approach to present what is actually a very ordinary story: a kid from the slum who wins the Who wants to be millionaire game show by answering each question by relating it to his life experiences.

But there are certain things that really disappoint. In a movie that is based in Mumbai and that is made primarily for an English speaking audience, the choice to have all the screenplay and dialogue in English seems like a natural choice. But by doing that in Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle has actually taken something out of each scene. For instance, why would Mumbai cops be speaking to Jamal Malik, a slumdog, in English after abusing him in Hindi ?! Agreed that there are parts in the movie where the choice is natural : like the scenes during the actual game show or when young Jamal pretends to be a guide and in the process dupes the foreigners who are visiting Agra. At places where the native language seems to capture reality better, the native language should be opted for and maybe use English subtitles so that your English speaking audience is not lost.

That brings us to the second bit: reality. In this story, Boyle portrays reality in a unique way , trying to mask it in what is essentially a commercial flick. But there are instances when this just goes a little wrong. For instance, how many times would you find a game show host insult the contestant fair and square? Or was it just me who found those dialogues a little odd?

Even if you chose to side step all this and enjoy the movie for the other things it has to offer, right at the end of the movie, out of nowhere really, Boyle decides to put a silly dance number involving Jamal Malik and Lathika. And while in your head you are probably saying “What the hell was that all about?? “, you realize that the ironical twist is just an indication of what Boyle really wants to portray using the movie.

I think the entire cast did a reasonable job and the movie was good time-pass.

I actually liked Anil Kapoor’s part, as the host of the game show. Salim was another character in the movie that was interesting, a real mixture of everything : anger, hatred, jealousy, sacrifice. Both the characters were unique and interesting.

Overall, a nice movie. But let us not go overboard and harp too much about it.

And for those of you who think that the movie is big in the west because of the west perception of what India is like i.e. all poverty, slums and shit hole … you are missing the point.

In case you’re wondering…

…I am still alive and well.  Just been so busy with work and applicating that I’ve hardly found time to write something out here. Few updates….

[rant]

I am being downright honest when I am saying this, the process of writing your tests ( GRE and TOEFL) and then creating a list of universities you would like to apply to and then eventually applying to them is one pain in the arse job. Why so? Well firstly, you spend an unbelievable amount of moolah.  You probably will not realize the amount you have spent until you see your credit card bill statement soon after.

Then there is the pain of actually writing two extremely stupid tests, GRE and TOEFL. This from a guy who has already given CAT once, the mother of all stupid tests, and screwed it up royally.

But the real ‘fun’ is when you are applying to universities. Going through each university’s web page, mailing some arbit lecturers, begging profs from your college and maybe even your manager at work for a recommendation and then the actual process of sending the application packets and sending queries to the university as to whether your application is complete only to find out that the person answering your queries is a dodo.

[/rant]

The ‘applicating’ part seems to be drawing to a close ( relief ! ). And I just hope that I get ONE admit somehow!

Meanwhile, I was following Sachin’s century on cricinfo on the final day of the recently concluded Chennai test between India and England. What a wonderful knock ! And I felt happy for Sachin because it was on the same ground that he was criticized for not guiding India to victory against Pakistan. Fools still hold that against him without even considering the fact that not one in the Indian batting line up stood up to the likes of Akram, Waqar and Saqlain Mushtaq except Sachin on that day. Also read this gem of an article by Peter Roebuck. Brillaintly worded and emphasizing the importance of sport in a way that I have never known it before.

Work is boring and very uneventful. Nothing much to write there. Just a big yaaaaaawwwn!

I finished reading this book  called ‘Business Stripped Bare‘ by Richard Branson.  Im sure people who know me well will know for a fact that I am not someone who shows keen interest in books on business strategies or the likes. I am not sure why I picked up this book on a dull Sunday afternoon at a Crosswords store. But I couldnt let go off it once I started reading and managed to finish it in one go.  Branson’s approach to explaining things is simple and easy to follow. But his ideas are very unique and interesting.  It is amazing how he is able to draw the same picture that you would probably see at your work place day-in and day-out, problems with the picture, and the solutions that he has learned through his experiences.  Worth a read!

I am currently reading ‘Shantaram‘. I have heard a lot about this book from my brother and some friends.

Ok thats about it for now.  Planning to go home and spending new years with folks! Wishing my readers a merry Christmas and a happy new year in advance!

More later…

Rock On

Saw this comic at flyyoufools.com

Check out the other comics on this site. Pretty funny!

Mumbai Meri Jaan

Every once in a while we come across a movie which seems to focus on one central theme but in the process tries to answer all our questions that we do not want to ask ourselves or anyone else for various reasons. Mumbai Meri Jaan is one such movie. In every sense, this movie is apt for modern-day India.

This movie is based on the serial blasts that took place in Mumbai on Jul, 2006. The movie tries to gauge the impact of the incident on the lives of a journalist ( Soha Ali Khan), a patriotic ‘aam-aadmi’ working for a corporate organisation (Madhavan), a policeman on the verge of retiring ( Paresh Rawal), a computer dealer and also a hindu-fanatic ( K K Menon) and a tamilian coffee-vendor (Irfan Khan).

I particularly enjoyed Paresh Rawal’s and Irfan Khan’s acting. These are too contrasting roles. Paresh’s part involves a lot more dialogues as compared to Irrfan’s but it is amazing how both manage to deliver such powerful performances.

It is disappointing to know that movies like Aamir and Mumbai Meri Jaan do not receive the kind of attention that they deserve.

Rating : 4.5/5

Aamir

I watcher ‘Aamir’ yesterday night. I do not want to reveal much in terms of the plot of the movie as such because by doing that I would be killing the movie itself for you (believe me! i am right about this!).

But ‘Aamir’ will give you a new perspective. It will give you a third eye view of some our social problems. It will open up the door to several questions : most of which will be unanswered. But more importantly, it will make an honest attempt at trying to convince you that not all that meets your eye is the ultimate truth.

Kudos to Rajeev Khandelwaal! His portrayal of the character called ‘Aamir’ is simply brilliant! RajKumar Gupta is brilliant in his direction.

Overall, a must watch!

Rating : 4/5

KDE 4.1 review

Let me be honest. On the very first look, KDE 4.1 is a like a cold breeze on a hot,muggy day (GNOME). Unfortunately, that is about as far as I can go with regard to positives. About three and half days of KDE and I have enough content to write for a review.

1. Prasanna made this point on hig blog and I agree with him. The windows look sad, in particular the toolbar and especially the titlebar. This is a huge disappointment in comparision to the desktop which looks great.
2. I like the idea about making the desktop widgetized. The default widgets that are available to the user are limited in number. But thats okay. Nothing much to complain here too. But, somehow, the whole idea of being able to change the wallpaper when th widgets are locked, seemed pointless. Logically, I would have arranged the widgets in such a manner that they go with my wallpaper. So I would like to lock the wallpaper too when I the lock all the widgets. This is not a bug really. But this is some sort of an enhancement.
3. Now comes the real dirt. I tried playing some audio files using Amarok and I discovered that the audio gets muted after every 30 seconds?!! WTF! I tried looking at the audio configuration and it seemed to be fine. I checked this on GNOME (using Amarok again) and playback was fine here. I checked this out in some forums and people did actually complain about this problem albeit in different ways.  Some guys had problem muting the sound. Some had the sound muted the whole time. These guys had tried installing KDE on Hardy Heron. After some serious checking and experimentation, I was able to get the playback working on KDE again! But as far as the whole experience is concerned, this is really a show stopper!
4. I don’t like the application launcher that KDE offers. Actually cant blame anyone here. After using Launchy, every other application launcher looks stupid !
5. Dolphin, KDE’s file manager, can be pretty irritating at times.
6. Moving the widgets on the main panel can be a pain.

I am sure that I have faced more issues than the ones that I have mentioned. Overall, KDE is not for me. I will still be using it for a while before I move over to GNOME. GNOME might look sad, but it is a lot more stable right now and that is more important at the end of the day, as compared to a flashy looking desktop with bugs.

Update: Just discovered that Synaptic Package Manager also crashes with KDE. After installing your packages, if any, the details window is expanded even though you did not ask for it. The remedy is simple: Just kill the process ’synaptic’ using its process id (you have to use sudo as this can be done only as a super-user). Cheers!