Not a million reasons to watch this (Slumdog Millionaire (DVD))

Member Name: mummy2harry

Product:	Slumdog Millionaire (DVD)
Date:	29/09/09 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good soundtrack, Dev Patel is excellent, story told in a good way

Disadvantages: Some scenes were upsetting and disturbing, doesn't live up to the hype

Jamil Malik is a boy from the slums of India, and he is about to take his country by storm. Jamal manages to get onto the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and stuns everybody with the amount he appears to know. Soon, Jamal is getting ever closer to winning the top prize, but people are starting to become suspicious - is Jamal cheating his way to victory? Can it be that a boy from the slums may just know all the answers to win an amount of money he can only ever dream of? And will he win the girl who has been in his heart since they were just children, or has he forever burned his bridges?

This has been one of the biggest films in terms of public interest, awards and reviews in a long time, and somehow it's taken me until now to get around to seeing it! People seem to really love it, telling me I must watch it, that it's great viewing and a real must see. So it was with somewhat trepidation that my fiance and I sat down to watch it last week.. we were unsure whether it was going to live up to the hype and I was a bit concerned because I had been told that there were some grittier scenes that I wouldn't expect. Anyway, I can say that while I enjoyed it, I'm not as blown away by it as I thought I would be.

One thing I cannot fault with this film is the actors. Dev Patel, who I have only seen in Skins up until now, was just brilliant as teenager Jamal who ends up with the chance to become rich beyond his wildest dreams. He plays Jamal to perfection, with a great "rabbit in the headlights" look and complete almost nonchalance about his situation. He was mesmerising to watch and I thought he more than carried the film by himself and was the perfect person to cast as likeable Jamal. I must also mention the fabulous young actors who play a younger Jamal, in particular little Ayush Mahesh Khedekar who was a very young Jamal and just amazing to watch, I loved him!

Freida Pinto plays Latika, Jamal's one love and while she does this very well, I don't think her performance was in any way outstanding or amazing, she was totally eclipsed by Patel and rightly so. The storyline between the pair was touching and well acted, and I enjoyed the twists and turns between them. Jamal's brother Salim was a very unlikeable character and Madhur Mittal was really good in the role as the oldest Salim. He was great on screen with Patel and you could believe the pair as brothers, and I was so eager to see how it was going to end up for the brothers. Another good performance for me was Millionaire host Prem Kumar who was played by Anil Kapoor, a funny yet twisted role that I enjoyed very much.

The composer for the music in this film, AR Rahman was indeed very good and captured the mood and essence of the film very well. I have heard that people think that it isn't as good as some of his other scores, but I can't comment on that as I don't think I have seen any films with his music in before. I loved the Indian music and the soundtrack complemented the action on screen very well, and the final musical number, Jai Ho featuring the cast dancing along was brilliant and is definitely the most recognisable song, probably due to the remix featuring The Pussycat Dolls.

The film has caused a lot of controversy because the plight of the young Indian actors involved has really been highlighted and concerned a lot of people. I do wonder what has happened to these brilliant child stars who put across the story of Jamal and co. so well, but a film like this is always going to stir up controversy one way or another. I hope they are compensated for their part but judging by things that I've read online and in the papers, it doesn't appear that is the case and I don't feel it is fair but a lot needs to happen before change can happen for these children. They are definitely a talented bunch though, and were fantastic to watch on-screen.

Some of the "grittier" scenes were disturbing for me to watch, in particular the scenes with the awful character of Maman. The abuse to the children was horrific and one scene in particular made both me and my fiance very upset and we were actually unsure that we wanted to carry on watching the movie after that. I feel that the tag "feel good movie of the year" is a little misleading and I was not at all prepared for some of the things I saw. I realise that this is the culture of certain countries and that these things do happen, but I was not expecting it and found it incredibly upsetting to watch. These scenes did have an impact in terms of the story but still I can't say I liked these scenes.

Overall, the film was very good but I just don't feel it lived up to the hype that has been created around it. The way the film is presented is very good - flashbacks that show how Jamal has known each answer up until the final question was really good and I enjoyed this part of it. The soundtrack was really good and added to the atmosphere, but I just cannot look past some of the upsetting scenes that really made me uncomfortable. The lead actors were very good and delivered brilliant performances and I think Dev Patel in particular deserves a lot of recognition for this great role. A good enough movie that I enjoyed, but didn't live up to hype for me.

Directed by Danny Boyle
Written by Simon Beaufoy (screenplay) and Vikas Swarup (Novel)
Running Time: 120 minutes
Certificate: 15

Main Cast:
Dev Patel ... Jamal K. Malik
Tanay Chheda ... Middle Jamal
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar ... Youngest Jamal
Freida Pinto ... Latika
Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar ... Middle Latika
Rubina Ali ... Youngest Latika
Madhur Mittal ... Older Salim
Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala ... Middle Salim
Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail ... Youngest Salim
Mahesh Manjrekar ... Javed
Saurabh Shukla ... Sergeant Srinivas
Anil Kapoor ... Prem Kumar

Thank you for reading.

Summary: A good film overall