Slumdog Millionaire (Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan)

[Darshana]

If you've seen this, could you post your comments about whether or not you'd take a 13 year old to see it?  (If this involves spoilers however - they're not necessary!!) 

[Simran_Singh]

If you've seen this, could you post your comments about whether or not you'd take a 13 year old to see it?  (If this involves spoilers however - they're not necessary!!) 

Well, it's been rated 'R' in North America, for what it's worth.

I guess it depends on the 13 year old - there's quite a bit of violence, some swearing and what I guess I would call some 'implied sexuality'. But it's also really funny, and exciting, and romantic, and... uplifting (that sounds corny, but I don't know what else to call it).

[Darshana]

Thanks!!

I think it'll be okay with him, he's now familiar with "implied sexuality."  And he travelled to Bombay with me (and his parents) so I think he'll be interested. 

[bella]

From Yahoo/AP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081107/ap_en_mo/film_slumdog_millionaire

Hollywood meets Bollywood in Oscar-hyped `Slumdog'

    *

By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle, Ap Entertainment Writer – 2 hrs 25 mins ago
In this image released by Fox Searchlight, director Danny Boyle is shown on the AP – In this image released by Fox Searchlight, director Danny Boyle is shown on the set of 'Slumdog Millionaire.' …

    * Bond. James Bond Books, Memorabilia On Display Play Video Video: Bond. James Bond Books, Memorabilia On Display CBS 2 / KCAL 9 Los Angeles
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NEW YORK – Hollywood and Bollywood rarely meet. But in the new film "Slumdog Millionaire," the two international epicenters of filmmaking find an unusually fruitful cinematic union.

The connection comes by way of British director Danny Boyle, who shot the film in Mumbai, India, with a cast of mostly Bollywood and local nonprofessional actors.

Filming with handheld digital cameras and working with a small crew from London, Boyle plunged into the slums of Mumbai to capture the city's vibrancy not like a foreigner, but like a chameleon.

"The normal thing you do as a film director is you take a bit of life, you stop it, control it, and then recreate it endless times to shoot it," said Boyle. "We did some stuff like that, obviously, but it feels a bit fake. It's got that kind of atmosphere thing that you can't quantify. Some of it's sound, but some of it's also visuals. If there's not that randomness about it, you don't believe it."

The story of "Slumdog Millionaire" itself is a bit unbelievable. It's about a teenager (Dev Patel) from the slums of Mumbai who ends up rising to the top of India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

A doubtful policeman interrogates him, accusing him of cheating. But his reasons for knowing each answer reflects his life story — a kind of truthful version of "The Usual Suspects." To do this, the part played by Patel also needed to be cast for two younger children — as did two supporting roles.

The casting headaches and the international production could have easily ended in disaster, or at least a poor movie. But "Slumdog Millionaire" has been hailed (Rolling Stone called it one of the year's best) and is getting a full Academy Awards push from Fox Searchlight, which also distributed the Oscar underdog "Little Miss Sunshine."

Hollywood blog Movie City News' "Gurus o' Gold," which compiles the Oscar prognostications of 14 leading industry insiders and critics, has "Slumdog" as a favorite for a best picture nomination.

The 52-year-old Boyle is known for the variety of his work, from 1996's druggie drama "Trainspotting" to 2002's horror film "28 Days Later" and last year's sci-fi space adventure "Sunshine."

But the last time that he took cameras to an exotic foreign land — for Leonardo DiCaprio's "Titanic" follow-up, "The Beach" — things didn't work out as well. The movie was panned and Boyle doesn't recall it fondly.

"If you go in as a bit of an invading army, it's much more difficult to adjust appropriately because you're just too big," said Boyle. "I've done that before. I went to Thailand to make `The Beach' and I went with a huge crew. Three months in Thailand, who'd say no to that? But in terms of making the film, I'm not sure that's the way to do it these days."

Producer Christian Colson said sending "hundreds of Europeans" into India didn't make sense.

"It would have been very expensive, but it's also dumb," said Colson. "We're traveling to one of the major filmmaking centers of the world — why do that?"

This time, Boyle kept the crew smaller and was working with a modest $15 million budget. He also enlisted casting director Loveleen Tandan, who helped so much (with work in the second-filming unit and local knowledge) that Boyle gave her a co-director credit in some markets.

"Danny never came in with a set of expectations," said Tandan. "He just went for it and was open. It's not about Bollywood or Hollywood or London. It's just him that made the film unique."

About a quarter of the film's dialogue is in Hindi — generally an impediment to U.S. box office success. The decision to go with subtitles was not originally in the all-English script by Simon Beaufoy ("The Fully Monty"), who loosely adapted Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A."

But finding young English-speaking Indian children who could still play poor, uneducated characters proved near impossible. So their dialogue was shifted to Hindi just four or five weeks before production.

"That was a massive liberation," said Colson, who financed the film privately. "If we'd had to persuade a studio of that decision, we'd still be arguing about it now."

Bollywood's ways of making films can differ greatly from Hollywood's. Films are made incrementally — often just a few days at a time — to fit the schedules of the very popular stars. Financing is also done piecemeal, with producers paying more only after seeing early results.

"The film is sort of made in an Indian way," said Colson, adding that they did have a schedule and all the money in advance. "I think it's in the soul of the film.

"Marrying that culture to what we're used to, I think it would have been very difficult 20 or 30 years ago. It's changing now."

That marriage is most evident in a big, Bollywood-esque dance number that Boyle said just felt "natural" to include.

One way the cultures failed to mingle was in casting the lead. For the teenage Jamal, Boyle only found muscular and "butch" actors from Bollywood. He cast the scrawnier Patel from London.

"The hardest thing I found on this film was getting out of that foreign mind-set," said Patel, whose only previous credit is the British teen drama "Skins." "Getting into the mind of a slum kid was really hard."

Boyle said the Oscar buzz for "Slumdog" has been "an amazing vehicle" to finding attention for an independent film that might not have otherwise gotten much attention. But months after his experience in Mumbai, he's still buzzing about it.

"There will be more and more of that hybrid stuff going on that connects Bollywood and Hollywood. Without a doubt," said Boyle. "It just looks natural that it's going to happen."

[NewLaura]

The movie opens in certain cities starting Wednesday, Nov.12, and then opens in other cities in a staggered scheduled over the next six weeks.  There is a schedule showing openings by city here:

http://content.foxsearchlight.com/inside/node/2951


Did anyone else register for tickets to one of the free preview screenings?  Did you get a confirmation email?  Now that I know it will be showing in the theater starting the next day, I don't want to drive 45 minutes to the preview without knowing I actually have tickets.

[Darshana]

A really good movie.

The director has mentioned this in interviews but it was fun to hear him say it in person at the MIAAC Film Festival Premiere showing tonight - it's a story about someone who grows up in the Bombay slums, and to cast it he first thought he'd find a Bollywood actor - but, he said, they all had bodies too massively worked out -- "they couldn't put their arms down at their sides" - for such a role.  And, he remarked, they looked particularly funny because their heads were too small for these bodies.

When you see it, think about if there's anyone who could be cast for this role - I think the guy in it is perfect.  If I had to draw from Bollywood I might think of Shreyas, though I think he's too irrepressibly sunny maybe.   Oh - Imran Khan.  With either of them keeping away from the gym.

[mrs. k]

A really good movie.

The director has mentioned this in interviews but it was fun to hear him say it in person at the MIAAC Film Festival Premiere showing tonight - it's a story about someone who grows up in the Bombay slums, and to cast it he first thought he'd find a Bollywood actor - but, he said, they all had bodies too massively worked out -- "they couldn't put their arms down at their sides" - for such a role.  And, he remarked, they looked particularly funny because their heads were too small for these bodies.

When you see it, think about if there's anyone who could be cast for this role - I think the guy in it is perfect.  If I had to draw from Bollywood I might think of Shreyas, though I think he's too irrepressibly sunny maybe.   Oh - Imran Khan.  With either of them keeping away from the gym.

Great to hear that the movie was good - how were Anil and Irfan?  What was the music like?

That's funny the director's anecdote about the pumped up actors and their small heads - I saw John on the set when he and Katrina were shooting  in Philadelphia and that was the first thing I noticed about him - his head did seem small for his body!  He was wearing a baggy shirt so that may have exacerbated it, but I think he also has pumped up his upper body quite a bit judging from his half-nude Dostana pics.

[bella]

Anil has never held much interest for me. But I thought  he was well suited to play the role . He played the host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire .His performance was engaging with a perfect amount of sleaziness with out over reaching.
It was strange to see him siting in Big/B'SRK's chair.  I t was so different to hear thim announce in  English  WWTBMillionaire instead of  Kaun Banaga Crorepati . That will make no difference to Western audiences.
This movie was thrilling and I need to see it again.I missed some of the dialog .Surprisingly the English parts.

[Darshana]

Yes that movie is really "full," too much going on to take in at once, like India.

[mrs. k]

Anil has never held much interest for me. But I thought  he was well suited to play the role . He played the host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire .His performance was engaging with a perfect amount of sleaziness with out over reaching.
It was strange to see him siting in Big/B'SRK's chair.  I t was so different to hear thim announce in  English  WWTBMillionaire instead of  Kaun Banaga Crorepati . That will make no difference to Western audiences.
This movie was thrilling and I need to see it again.I missed some of the dialog .Surprisingly the English parts.

thanks - can't wait to see this.  And the music?

[bella]

I didn't know until credits rolled that AR Rahman scored it. But I did recognize  a song in it PaperPlanes. by M.I.A. 
The only other "song" that stands out was the end song Jai ho.(rahman) Too busy concentrated on the kaleidoscope of a movie

The following article has Boyle talking about the score. He mentions Western scores wanting to be in the back round rather than featured songs in Indian flilm.

http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/11/danny-boyle-talks-his-approach-to-music.html

[CesmiSiyah]

I remember seeing the book it's based on in the bookstands here in Sweden. I hope we'll get it here as a movie as well!

When you see it, think about if there's anyone who could be cast for this role - I think the guy in it is perfect.  If I had to draw from Bollywood I might think of Shreyas, though I think he's too irrepressibly sunny maybe.   Oh - Imran Khan.  With either of them keeping away from the gym.

Siddharth? 

[Darshana]

Siddharth isn't a bad idea - though I do think having someone who does not project that "star" thing was really necessary.   Because as Danny Boyle emphasized, the guy really does have to be believable as a slumdog who's lived by his wits his whole life (but is not a thug - a built-up Bollywood body would work ok for a slumdweller who grew up to be in organized crime I guess).

[Simran_Singh]

Siddharth isn't a bad idea - though I do think having someone who does not project that "star" thing was really necessary.   Because as Danny Boyle emphasized, the guy really does have to be believable as a slumdog who's lived by his wits his whole life (but is not a thug - a built-up Bollywood body would work ok for a slumdweller who grew up to be in organized crime I guess).

I think Dev Patel brought a great physicality to the role - he's scrawny but still kind of 'tough' ... or maybe resilient would be a better word. I'm thinking particularly of

Spoiler (hover to show)

his defiance (or was it just resignation) when he's being tortured at the beginning, and when he punches his brother when they reunite at the construction site.

And then there is his mental 'toughness' as well of course.

[CesmiSiyah]

While I don't think Sid is particularly 'starry' or built-up I understand where you're coming from regarding an relatively unknown actor possibly being more believeable as a slumdog. Still, an actor's job is to be able to pull it off anyways, isn't it?

[mrs. k]

I didn't know until credits rolled that AR Rahman scored it. But I did recognize  a song in it PaperPlanes. by M.I.A. 
The only other "song" that stands out was the end song Jai ho.(rahman) Too busy concentrated on the kaleidoscope of a movie

The following article has Boyle talking about the score. He mentions Western scores wanting to be in the back round rather than featured songs in Indian flilm.

http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/11/danny-boyle-talks-his-approach-to-music.html

So Rahman is the "Puff Daddy of India!"    Thanks for that article - now I'm even more intrigued to hear how Boyle uses the music.

[NewLaura]

I loved this movie.  I was surprised to see that one of the boys from TZP is in it.  (He played Darshiel's disabled friend in school.  I think his name is Tanay Chheda - he's adorable.)  I thought all of the actors did a great job.

I loved the music, too.  I have to note that every single audience member stayed seated for the entire run of the credits because they were interspersed with a song and dance (the only dance in the film).      I looked for the music on iTunes, but it doesn't seem to be there.  The rest of the songs were used as background music, and I really liked them.

[etu]

I give this movie huge points for its creative screenplay, acting/casting, direction, cinematography, attention to detail and more.

Just want to warn people that the first half hour or so is very intense. This is not a light movie. It reminds me of Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay. However, if Salaam Bombay simmers from beginning to end, Slumdog launches at a roiling boil and sticks to that intensity for much of the length. Its valleys are darker and its peaks are sparklier.

When I saw Salaam Bombay, I decided I never needed to visit India. Nearly 20 years later, I went anyway. I wonder if Slumdog may have the same effect of scaring new audiences away or if its complexity actually will lure the adventurous traveler instead.

ETA: Here's a new review by Manohla Dargis in the New York Times:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/movies/12slum.html?partner=rss
This link should work without signing in. Let me know if it doesn't.

[bella]

The New York Post is a 4 star rave!
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11122008/entertainment/movies/slumderful__138251
   and LA Times with  a clip

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-slumdog12-2008nov12,0,7349441.story

[NewLaura]

The Washington Post had a positive review today, too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/11/AR2008111102775.html

From 'Slumdog' to Riches In a Crowd-Pleasing Fable
 By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 12, 2008; Page C01

Imagine the young David Copperfield transported in time and place to the dizzying, impoverished, improbably beguiling city of Mumbai and you get the gist of "Slumdog Millionaire."

This modern-day "rags-to-rajah" fable won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, and it's easy to see why. With its timely setting of a swiftly globalizing India and, more specifically, the country's own version of the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" TV show, combined with timeless melodrama and a hardworking orphan who withstands all manner of setbacks, "Slumdog Millionaire" plays like Charles Dickens for the 21st century. But in this particular saga, the stench and soot of Victorian England have been replaced by the Tata fumes and computer-screen glow that envelop a country in the throes of profound economic and cultural change.

The resourceful, unerringly grounded title character is one Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a lanky, lantern-jawed kid from the slums of Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) whom we meet just after he has won 10 million rupees on the game show. As the movie asks in a set of cleverly designed titles, how could a young man with no formal education know so many answers to such arcane questions? Accused of cheating, Jamal is taken into custody by the Mumbai police, and he proceeds to tell them his story, a tale of one boy's decidedly unsentimental education by way of poverty, tribal strife, abandonment, exploitation, criminal gangs and -- this is a crowd-pleaser, after all -- undying love.

Like such other Western filmmakers as Wes Anderson and Chris Smith, director Danny Boyle has clearly found inspiration in the landscape and textures of modern-day India, whose historic aesthetic of riotous color and lush extravagance coexists with otherwise blah call centers and vanilla-colored condos.

In fact, without such a dynamic and visually arresting backdrop, "Slumdog Millionaire," which was adapted by screenwriter Simon Beaufoy from a novel by Vikas Swarup, would be just another by-the-numbers melodrama. Even as a besieged underdog, Patel often makes a maddeningly laconic protagonist. Indeed, the two most interesting characters are the film's only ambiguous ones: Jamal's brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), whose motives are as opaque as they are mercurial, and game show host Prem Kumar, played by Anil Kapoor with the sly poker face of a professional knife-fighter. (The film is worth the price of admission just to hear Kapoor's silky pronunciation of the word "millionaire.")

With its stock characters and often outlandishly contrived plot, "Slumdog Millionaire" could easily be relegated to the category of cinematic stunt, a penny dreadful for the postmodern age. But even at its most superficial and floridly overheated, this chai-fueled tall tale retains its appeal, largely because of Boyle's fluency with the medium he so obviously loves. Viewers familiar with such earlier films as "Trainspotting" and "28 Days Later" know of Boyle's love for snazzy cuts and stylized effects. Those predilections serve him well in a story that needs to move with the lightning speed of the society it reflects. Even when "Slumdog Millionaire" is retailing the most appalling depredations of Jamal's life (a disgusting episode at a public toilet, unspeakable violence at the hands of a Fagin-like kidnapper), Boyle manages to capture the pulse and verve of a universe where anything is possible.

That admittedly sounds like a fairy tale, and thinking of it as such is the best way to encounter "Slumdog Millionaire." (If the audience doubts the film's underlying sense of fantasy, it should stick around for the rousing closing-credits sequence.) And like all good fairy tales, this outsize celebration of perseverance and moral triumph contains within it a deeper idea -- in this case, the relative nature of what we think we know, and what's worth knowing at all. No doubt Dickens himself would approve.

Slumdog Millionaire (121 minutes, at area theaters) is rated R for violence, disturbing images and profanity.

[etu]

...and game show host Prem Kumar, played by Anil Kapoor with the sly poker face of a professional knife-fighter. (The film is worth the price of admission just to hear Kapoor's silky pronunciation of the word "millionaire.")

Haha. While Anil was really good in his role, which has a twist, at that moment I thought he was channeling Amitabh!

[Simran_Singh]

...and game show host Prem Kumar, played by Anil Kapoor with the sly poker face of a professional knife-fighter. (The film is worth the price of admission just to hear Kapoor's silky pronunciation of the word "millionaire.")

Everytime Anil said 'millionaire' I burst into giggles!

***

According to this article the production folks have set up some kind of scholarship/trust fund for the boys who played the young Jamal and Salim:

Boyle Takes Responsibility for ‘Slumdog’

One of the biggest surprises of the year has to be Danny Boyle's crowd-pleasing "Slumdog Millionaire." Ignore the confusing trailer and listen to the critics and audiences who have been buzzing about the film since it premiered at this year's Telluride Film Festival.

The story of a young man from the slums Mumbai, India, who startlingly gets to the final question on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," "Slumdog" has the same sort of universal charm that put films such as "Il Postino" and "Amélie" squarely in Oscar's spotlight. Yet, when Boyle was initially approached about the project, he was far from interested.

"They said it is a film about 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,' and I really, really don't want to make that film," Boyle recalls. "And then I started reading it and within 10 pages I was overwhelmed by it. It just vibrated in front of me: the film, the idea, the kid, the city of Mumbai. And when I got to the end, I thought, 'I'm in. I'm doing it.'"

The Brit regretted using a large crew on his previous overseas effort, "The Beach," and recruited a much smaller and mostly local group while shooting "Slumdog" on location in Mumbai. It was such a busy city and so uncontrollable that Boyle says he had to give himself over to it. Boyle notes, "It helps you get over the idea of: How can this guy from London or Europe make a film about local people without seeming a bit inaccurate?"

The picture also had a relatively small budget of approximately $16 million, which required a discipline and ambition that Boyle found much more creatively rewarding in the long run. The fact that it wasn't a major Hollywood production also allowed Boyle to make a big change to the script right before shooting began. The first third of the story had focused on the lead character and his brother when they were young kids, but they soon learned that the children from the slums they wanted to hire couldn't speak the screenplay's English dialogue.

"Because you haven't taken $100 million, you can ring up Warner Bros. and tell them, 'Listen, guys: The first third of the film is now going to be in Hindi with subtitles.' And they go insane, understandably. But you can just about get away with it," Boyle says. "But if you'd taken $100 million, you can't even make the phone call."

Bringing underprivileged children into the magical world of moviemaking can be a life-changing experience for those involved, and Boyle and his crew were well aware of the responsibility they had to look after the kids once they were gone. The production set up a structure in which, if the children stay in school up until they are 16 and through their exams, a substantial amount of money will be released to them. Boyle adds, "But the biggest difference will be the fact they have been educated because, in terms of employment in Mumbai, that puts them in a completely different bracket."

Boyle continues, "Their lives are their own, you can't look after them their whole lives, it's not really realistic. They just passed their yearly exams. And hopefully the film will give them some long-term benefits as well."

"Slumdog Millionaire" opens in limited release on Nov. 12.

[Darshana]

Totally agree with Etu that the first half hour or so is intense - to the point of being hard to take (but not bad/exploitative, to me, at all), and to the point of being definitely not for children, in my book -- and that after that the film succeeds brilliantly in maintaining a level of intensity,  but with a diminution in horrifying-ness.

About this film I guess most reviewers will say "Dickensian," and in this instance my usual antipathy for same-thing-saying is not activated, as I think it is Dickensian and that that's a good way to place it culturally, also a good place for me to place it in myself to help me tolerate its rougher moments.

[jlhs]

USA Today gives it four out of four stars: http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2008-11-11-slumdog-millionaire_N.htm

[Spencer]

I tried to see this movie today and my local theatre was sold out.  I'll try again this weekend.

It is getting great reviews - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/slumdog_millionaire/