Slumdog Millionaire for the Oscars...Really???

So many people were raving about the greatness of the new movie "Slumdog Millionaire" that I was desperate to see what's so good about it! When I finally got a chance to watch it, I was disappointed! I was trying very hard to understand what was so outstanding but failed to do so.

I'm not saying that it was a bad film, but, there was nothing extraordinary either. To me, it looked like a tweaked, tad glamorized version of Mira Nair's "Salaam Bombay". Personally I think that "Salaam Bombay" was very powerful and portrayed the life in slums of Mumbai as realistically as possible. The authenticity of the film lay in the fact that many of the child "actors" were actual street kids, and of course some stellar performances by actors like Nana Patekar and Raghuvir Yadav. "Slumdog Millionaire" failed to make the same impact on me.

First of all, a westerner making a film on life in the underbelly of Mumbai sounds like a strange phenomenon in itself. Some might argue that Mira Nair is also a westerner, but being of Indian origin can make a huge difference. An Indian can identify with certain aspects of Indian culture and society that might seem alien to a westerner. However, that's not the primary reason for me to dislike the film. I felt that the lead actor Dev Patel was too “polished" to be a "slumdog". Although he played the part well, the hint of a British accent in his dialogue delivery bothered me quite a bit all through the film. A thought crossed my mind one too many times that if Jamal (Dev Patel) was so sharp, intelligent, well-versed, with a good command over the English language, why the heck was he still working as a chaiwala? And since when did the questions on "Kaun Banega Crorepati" become so simple? If that was the case, India would be overflowing with millionaires! I also felt that the arrogance and sarcasm of Anil Kapoor's character was a bit overdone and a total contrast to the behavior of actual hosts of KBC like Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan.

On the bright side, the overall plot was pretty decent, and most of the actors did proper justice to their parts. A.R.Rehman's music score was good. The film-makers managed to successfully capture various facets of street-life in Mumbai.

All that said, does the film really, really deserve to be nominated in so many categories? Or is it getting all this extra attention simply because it is made by a westerner? As an overall experience, I felt that from the past few years, "Taare Zameen Par", "No Smoking", "Manorama Six Feet Under", or for that matter even "Dor" would have been better candidates for nominations.

All said and done, to end my thrashing of this film, I would say that in my honest opinion, all the hype and hoopla about "Slumdog Millionaire" is a plain case of "much ado about nothing!"