I have seen a number of guys using their blogs as a platform to act as a critic for a movie. I used to wonder what all bloggers do while watching a movie, do they actually watch it or just will be scratching hair on what to scribble later in their blogs. This has amused me, made me curious. Let me try my hand, I saw Slumdog as a critic, in a CRITICal perspective .Lets just speak about the movie keeping all the controversies aside regarding its troubled Indian face. I will try to come up with that controversy sometime later.
What a good or rather a great cult movie should possess?
1. A powerful story which keeps you at the edge of your seat for the entire duration but still glued to it.
2. Good screenplay, good script, good cinematography, I wont go into the deeper technicalities of the movie since I am unaware of the movie making skills.
Overall Slumdog is a success recipe. It is mere perfect. Danny boyle has finally earned the much eluded international fame for his wonderful work with the movie.
The movie is actually a moving story of a Mumbai slum dweller boy named Jamaal who in the verge of winning a reality quiz show interrogated by the suspicious cops. How Jamaal knows the answers of all questions, how he won 20 million big bucks and also won his Love is the essence of the movie. The movie is totally desi in look & partly in Hindi. Overall, I loved the movie. Scenes like pouring of acid into the eyes of orphan kids are really touching and well shot.
Anil kapoor is mediocre and irritating but the kids are just awesome. Don’t know whether they will get any recognition later. Subtitles are shown in an innovative way. And it is this balance of film which has touched the right chords of the audience and earned it $’s and golden globes. And our own A R Rahman got the world recognition by winning the golden globe representing 1st ever Indian who won it & it’s definitely a moment for an Indian to cherish. But definitely the background score he gave in the film isn’t his best. Just another normal Rahman composition earned him a Golden globe shows how underrated he is and how underrated our Indian movies are, surely a topic of discussion.
Overall in my favorite IMDB’s words, definitely a 8 pointer and a top 250 movie.
15 comments:
music in the film is great.Acting ,particularly those kids have done a good job!and Bharat ban gaya blogger!good first post and Keep filling the pot with thoghts.
Nice way to start blogging. Movies will be much easier step to take initially but it should not be adopted forever. I feel blogging should be effective used as a tool to reflect your views for more concrete areas.
SlumDog can never be even close to the best movies came out of bollywood. It took me with surprise the wave it has generated across the world. I expect it may not be the same when released in hindi, as we Indians have come across many subject of this kind.
Screenplay made the movie look different, Rehman may be feeling dejected for the award as, definitely this is not among his best numbers.
Dev Patel is indeed getting more focus and credit which should have been credited to excellent job delivered by kids who made this movie touching.
Think am going more lengthy than the blog itself!!! Anyways good start keep BLOGGING
Welcome to blogger!! The blogging bug isn't sparing anyone I guess!! Great first post.Keep those posts coming!!
Good start bro.. And (un)fortunately I have got not much to say abt this which is a lot different from what Shaz has already told.. A movie review is a nice way to begin with, but let this not be the only thing u write abt. But that doesnt mean u get a lot of liberty here to pen down(rather type out) all your radicle ideas n get into cat fights with others :P (Excuse me for writing this :P)
And abt Slumdog, a nice movie indeed, but I feel it really doesnt deserve all the hype it has got.. There are way too many Indian movies much better than this.. And I feel its more a movie abt how he doesnt give up on her than how he won a 2 million rupees game show. People might think I am a lil eccentric when I write this, but I felt, atleast initially, that Dev Patel did nt know much how to emote.. Now this could be very subjective (and there is nt actually any objective way of assessing it, for the benifit of all the actors) or may be the character really did demand it (like how they always defend a poor performance) but it certainly is not all that praiseworthy either. Who need to be really praised are those kids and Loveleen for casting them.. And the first half of the movie in Hindi was much appealing than the later half in English..Music was good n Anil is getting a free publicity in India for his almost nothing in the movie.. Did u watch him jumping in the GG ceremony.. Nobody even cared, but he knew ppl in India wud be watching him.. Good to watch once, may be even more than once, but if this deserved all this appreciation, there are many more Indian movies which deserve too..!
And bhatta I want u to write abt this NDTV Indian of the year (gimmick). The other day I saw them discussing that in Bangalore n was shocked to death that they had Katrina Kaif in the Indian Actor of the year as a nominee.. I was wondering if mere presence in movie was sufficient to be called as an actor.. Worst part was she was contesting it with Nasiruddin Shah.. Such an insult to him...!!!!
Nice blog dude.. Even though the music isn't the best by Rahman, it goes very well with movie.. And yes the kids have done an excellent job..
@car thick.. Even i am shocked that Katrina has been nominated for the Indian actor of the year.. i would rather nominate her for the worst actor..
@Chethan
Thanks man, Yes i will come up with with good thoughts.
@shaz
I want my blog to be a good recipe which can throw light on every domain in the court.Thanks for your suggestions bro.
@Karthik
There are lots of good Indian movies and directors going unrecognized globally which is disaster and our so called "Indian high profile" directors are busy earning big bucks with stupid 3rd rate commercial flicks. Speaking of the maestro Rahman, he must have earned a couple more golden globes for Roja(I feel this is his best work till date) and Swades ahead of Slumdog.
@Prabhat
Thanks for your comments man. Its really good to have like minded people around.
Clarification : Its not a Bollywood Movie... Just cos its set in India It won an award for Best Feature Film and not as Foreign Film. So, Please do not talk about other Indian movies deserving a "GOLDEN GLOBE". Thats illogical. Comparing Apples to Oranges.
Doubt : Did u mean 'songs' from movies Roja and Swades to be considered... or the 'background score'... wrt to Rahman receiving the award for Background Score...cos there werent any songs in the movie besides "Jai Ho" in the End Credits.
Did you check : The comments of Actors in Sandalwood on awarding Girish Kasaravalli.... "EVERYTIME"...
@Fabulist
Let me know your name first man.I couldn't decipher your identity.And thanks a lot for your comments.I am really overwhelmed and awestruck by the response of all the guys.
Wel,its not about the best foreign movie or the best feature film, its about the spotlight we receive for our good movies which are likely to be of low budget and less popular,in comparison Slumdog itself is a low budget flick(I am told movie was bundled within 4 million $,less compared to UK standards) but it still swept away so many laurels and also commercial success.
Regarding 'Roja' and 'swades' i meant the entire package, background score plus the songs which is undoubtedly better than Slumdog.Don't you feel the same?
Its all in the views and ideas of an individual that makes up the identity. Tagging a name to the individual does not changes his ideas nor your view. So lets play the name game in a different blog[if you intend to start one]
Correcting Further : As you said
"its not about the best foreign movie or the best feature film, its about the spotlight we receive for "our good movies" which are likely to be of low budget and less popular".
The fact that I put forth as clarification is that you cannot classify this movie as "Our Movie"( which is what I meant by it not being a bollywood production), to own it to our credit. And wanting to talk about sharing this spotlight with other good movies of "Ours"(which is what I meant by being Illogical). Some common faces and places makes it call it as "our own", Like Anil Kapoor, A R Rahman, the Indian setting and the subtitled Hindi. I hope this clarifies the fact that I wrote earlier.
More Help on the same:
Compare A R Rahman on the Chinese movie Warriors of Heaven and Earth... can we own that movie..?
Compare Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - through and through shot in India with Ambrish Puri(a known face)... can we own that movie..?
Comparatively, Slumdog had less or no foreign faces and places, Hence we call it "Our Movie". Which is not right.
Talking about the Music of ARR...Roja or Swades and the package value.. got their recognition to all the ends it reached in their times. Comparing the logic above...expecting a Golden Globe now is not a valid request. I don't feel that the music from Slumdog isn't so low either, It stands good for its time.It won the award from a jury of not so musically inclined people is what we will be concluding otherwise, Which I don't think so... Cos I loved the music a month before I watched the movie.
However...I came back to see your comments on the Sandalwood query...hmmm...
Nice way to riddle as an anonymous blogger with the idenity encryption.So let me try to index a mind of a hidden dark face!
I suppose you were commenting abt the logicality of Indian movies getting Golden globes in comparison with Slumdog in ur 1st post,fair enough.I came up with this "..Wel,its not about the best foreign movie or the best feature film, its about the spotlight we receive for our good movies which are likely to be of low budget and less popular,in comparison, Slumdog itself is a low budget flick..."
clarification: "our" suggests Indian movies all the way(yes,only good ones) and not slumdog.Its crystal clear.We never owned it and don't wanna own it too.I didn't find your counter clarification valid given I never said Slumdog is "our" Indian flick.I expect more spotlight on movies like Kasravalli's "Dweepa" or madhur's "page-3.So i presume the misconception between us is healed.
Regarding ARR, he is a living legend, anything by him is good and is expected to be good with the higher threshold of expectations and he has lived up to it successfully.Deservedly he won it for Slumdog, but why not Swades or Roja? aren't they equally good? colloquially putting it as " Ond kaNNige beNNe innondakke suNNa ".
And regarding Sandalwood controversy, I am least informed about it man:(
Now that we arent playing the name game... let me get to the discussion directly...
All the while the discussion revolved around the Golden Globe and a Movie that won it[Spotlight being here]...Hence I wrote my views keeping them in mind.
Again... its not just your view I was discussing.. but also others' where Shaz says its a Bollywood Flick.... or Karthik comparing other Indian Movies with this one...that seemed absurd. Their thoughts kind of manifested in your replies as well. So I had to re-clarify it...which turned too targetted on u...apologies
ARR wrt to Roja or Swades guess I have put in the clarity...Yet...It wont get an award... simply cos it wasnt produced this year.So lets not dream about it. No question of Benne and Sunna at all.Its proper Benne. Think of Bombay the title track that reached global levels...its cos of his previous Roja that was much talked...
If you think of Our movies not getting the attention...like Dweepa u mentioned... U shud have seen the kind of remarks ppl within the industry give to a director who made Dweepa[Sandalwood Drama]...that promotes a different kind of attention altogether...
Hope to see more... of your amateur work ...and carve a niche of your own...probably become 'TOP' than 'POT' of thoughts... :)
good one...appreciated
Fabulist got me re-reading my entire post(more than once) n I still donot see what was it that got him/her thinking that I, with Shaz n Bharath together regret other Indian movies not getting a Golden Globe..
The fact abt it not being a bollywood flick is accepted but the arguement that one is an apple and others oranges and therefore not comparable, is not! It can be a reason why Dweepa was not nominated for Golden Globe, but shud nt stop me from comparing them..
And I dint really pick up the tone in the references made by Fabulist abt Kasaravalli ( I am really dull with all o this :P), but all I can say for sure is he is one of the finest film makers n if sandalwood keeps whining abt him winning all the awards..well..I dont really expect them to do anything more worthwhile.. Only re-emphasizes their class..
katte ballude kasturi parimalawa..?
At Karthikeya... It seems amusing of a thought a human mind can make, that it accepts a fact by a line and "agree"[without discerning the depth of information in it] to it. Yet make a counter statement in the same lines.
Guess, you should read it several more times...:) to get the whole concept.
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