There seems to be some correlation between Underdogs and British/Scott people with the last name Boyle. First, it was the turn of Danny Boyle to direct a film about an underdog and stun the world with his rags-to-riches story. The film, Slumdog Millionaire, went on to become a huge commercial success and was awarded 8 Oscar awards. Now, it is the turn of another Boyle, Susan to stun the world.

Consider this – At the time of writing this article, Susan Boyle-related videos have generated more than 100 million views in Youtube. As you are reading this, there must be thousands of viewers watching Susan Boyle’s videos. The video that I watched had 40 million views, 162,000 ratings (all 5 stars- can anything beat that?), 613 video responses, close to 200,000 text comments. Moments later when I went back to check these statistics, I was completely surprised. These numbers had gone up significantly. There cannot be a better example of an outrageously successful viral video.

So Who is Susan Boyle? What makes her a sensational figure? You will get the answers to these questions when you watch the video. It is so self-explanatory. I suggest that you watch the video before reading further.

Watch the video here

Susan is a 47 year old poor unemployed woman who took part in the UK reality show – “Britain’s Got Talent”. She had a not so pleasing personality and was quite awkward when she was put in front of camera. When she entered the stage, people looked at her mockingly and wanted her to get off the stage as soon as possible.In short, she was written off even before she performed on the stage. But when she started singing, the audience was stunned by her sweet voice. Within seconds, she became a sensation. The audience wildly cheered for her and gave here a standing ovation. The judges were equally stunned and awarded her the maximum possible points. With that, another rags-to-riches story was born. Another underdog, in this case Susan Boyle, fought against all odds and won.

The common thread between the successes of Danny and Susan Boyles’ underdog stories is that people are so tired of bad news and any feel- good story that is soothing is warmly embraced. There are stories in the internet about how audience felt exhilarated after watching “Slumdog Millionaire”(SDM) and about people watching Susan Boyle’s videos repeatedly and weeping with joy every time they saw it. There are also critics who slam both SDM and Susan Boyle’s videos as over-hyped and opine that both are mediocre at best. And these critics have a valid point.

However, the bottom-line is, in both the cases, the audience were not “thinking” and analysing critically. Instead, they were “feeling” and giving vent to their emotions. Looks like the heart continues to be more powerful than the head. Isn’t it?

PS: Here is an article about the Susan Boyle phenomenon that I found quite interesting

Popularity: 45%

On March 06^th, I read this news on IBN and it disturbed me hell of a lot

The Congress party may rope in child actors of Slumdog Millionaire – Azhar and Rubina – for Lok Sabha poll campaign, Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) president Kripashankar Singh said in Mumbai on Thursday.

“We may use their services if they volunteer to campaign for the Congress,” Singh told reporters.

When I heard the name Kripashankar Singh, it reminded me of a news on him a few years ago for a wrong reason. Midday in Mumbai had published an article by Syed Hussain Zaidi on Mr. Singh. The title read “Kripashankar’s Guns to Goon”. This is the same guy who approved an unprecedented 349 arms licences in a month and that too just before the poll. Apparently, some were for his friends and some for criminals. Now you know why the news disturbed me.

Coming to the point – That it was Mr. Singh who was speaking to rope in the child actors was one concern, the other and more alarming concern was why are children being dragged into politics? Just because the film was a runaway success and half the population in that film are Indians and that too kids from slums, why are these 10 year olds and 12 year olds shown a world that they are totally unaware of.

Is it not exploitation of children by national leaders? What is wrong with Congress ? Is the Congress lacking in adult star campaigners that they had to rope in kids for their campaign ? Wouldn’t Anil Kapoor or Irfan Khan been a better representative for them than these poor kids ?

This is exploitation of children, of the first order. I have not heard the Children’s Rights Activists speaking out on this matter. Where are they ? Are they waiting for any Shubh Muhurtham to showcase their concern for children – or are they like the many reactive cells who do nothing but talk, talk and talk and when something noteworthy happens, their hearts suddenly starts pumping like nobody’s business.

And what is the Minister for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury, doing ? I heard her talk well when Muthalik and his men attacked the pub in Mangalore and rightly so – I respected her for that. I haven’t heard her this time.

Oops!!! I forgot, she is also from Congress.

Of course, this is election time and the last thing you want on earth is a tug of war between a man and a woman involving the children, all claiming to be under the same banner – Congress!

There is no denying the fact that in the last 4-5 years Congress government has done a phenomenal job in positioning India in the global map under the able leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh and his very accomplished Cabinet.

However, in my mind, of late Congress seems to have lost it when it comes to making the right decisions, doing the right things, setting examples. How else can you explain their logic of picking up children for political campaigns ….children who don’t even know how to spell POLITICS.

“No Shame” is the name of the game!

Image Credit: Desheboard

Popularity: 19%

Last night I saw Slumdog Millionaire. I was happy I saw it, though I was not euphoric. Almost everyone in India is speaking about it. Let me put down my 10 penny’s worth of reflections about this gripping movie.

First, we should not in all fairness usurp credit for the production as an Indian movie. It is a British production with a majority of Indian faces.

I felt disgusted with some of the scenes in the movie – particularly where the hero jumps into the cesspool in his excitement to see Amitabh Bachhan. This is hardly reflective of the reality in any part of India. I was filled with equal revulsion to see a child being blinded by putting liquid metal in the eye. The communal fury and violence was another disturbing scene. I thought this was artistic license taken too far.

Danny Boyle captured the attention of the world with a few sweeping, wild caricatures of India. Millions of people world wide will now perceive India as a land of cesspools, abominable cruelty on children and communal flare up. Even if such occurrences were based on reality, it does not feel good to wash our dirty linen in public.

On the other hand, people living in depraved conditions in slums are a reality. How I wish we did something about improving their lot rather than wishing the slums away!

However much I searched and tried, I could not see the movie ending on a note of hope and optimism. Winning a lottery on a string of coincidences is hardly what I would term as inspirational.

In the latest issue of Sunday Times, Dr.Deepak Chopra, the world renowned spiritual writer, makes two fascinating points about Slumdog Millionaire.

One, “Many well educated Indians have looked westward for a long time, which is easier than looking inward. They know more about the streets of London and New York than the teeming lanes of the ghettos in their own city.” Two, “Past history and ingrained inhibitions make it hard for Indian artists in any field to be as frank and true to life as they should be. They have yet to seize freedom.”

In our land we have slumdogs (I am referring to the poor in general) and they inhabit a world of their own. Their culture, morals, rules and life in general are different. The more affluent do not mix with the folks in this land.

Then there is the land of the rich – meaning people in the middle and upper strata of society. Their culture, morals, rules and aspirations are also very different. They prefer to live, as far away from the slumdogs as possible.

The slumdogs and the rich meet in movie halls. Sitting in different classes, they sink into the make-believe fantasy world of movies for about 2 hours or more. They see glamorized rags to riches stories, the hero vanquishing the evil after unbelievable stunts. They do not come to the movies to see their world as it is. The slumdogs cannot afford the pain of more pain and the millionaires cannot bear the intrusion of reality into their sanitized world.

As it happens most often, the value of Indian talents increase multi-fold after their discovery by the west. The west has validated the truth that several of our artists and technicians are world class. We should thank them for the favour and lose no time in joining in the celebrations earnestly. Let us go gung-ho about the achievements of A.R Rahman, Resool Pookkutty and Gulzar.

However, we must develop our own self respect and make effort of our own, to unearth and recognize our precious talents in various fields.

Finally, isn’t it a matter of pride that all the three Oscar awardees are from the minority community? And the entire nation is proud of them. Despite the poverty and so many other shortcomings, we know the true meaning of “unity in diversity”.

It is celebration time.

Image Credit: Master Orz

Popularity: 17%

Yes, Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscars. Congrats to both Rahman and Rasul for winning the same. It was a well made film and good creativity was seen in the entire film. It’s also possibly the best marketed film but the question is how did the film project India? I just saw the movie today and hence I thought I will chip in with my bit of the movie. I was supposed to have a feel good factor after seeing the movie alas it was the opposite.

The movie started with the slums clearly showing how our slums are and how bad it can be. It’s the truth but it was shown very unrealistically. The kid swimming the shitpool for the autograph of an actor is the first scene which was completely absurd and it clearly shocked me not because it doesn’t happen here but how it shows India in poor light. The film shows poverty and the very negative side of India. The accolades of the Oscar suddenly slipped my India and I was left stung by the complete apathy in projecting the movie as “the world taking note of India”. Is this what we wanted to show them?

Here I can only say we are sadly mistaken. We were the land of maharajas, bullock carts, magicians with the great Indian rope tricks and very poor, for our masters around 60 years ago. Now we have a new status. We are the slumdogs, shit swimmers, beggars, stealers and child racketeers.

Yes they are turning rich and the world is noticing it but they are doing it through the moneys of the westerners or through sheer luck like the winner of the quiz. So if a foreigner tomorrow asks me whether children swim in shit-ponds in India what can I say, for it is the image created in the western world.

In my article the third stimulus package I had written about the stimulus provided to the Indian market. But whom are they benefitting after all? We are not slum dogs just because we live in slums. If we are not, then what are we doing about these people? Elections have come and gone the slums still remains as it is. Government spends crores on election advertising and all tax sops which is sheer wastage of taxpayer’s money. Can’t we accommodate the poor in good houses?

If slumdog is not the image which we want to project the western world then what should it be? The buoyant Indian economy needs an image modification and we have to do just the right thing to eradicate the wrong image projected of India.

Surely we can take pride of Rahman who is extremely talented and Rasul too. But was this the right way to win an Oscar? Danny Boyle’s film had brought some cheers to the foreigners reeling under recession and wanting to blame India for all their worries.

It’s time we remind ourselves of this sorry saga and elect the right person to the chair at least the next time.

Popularity: 15%

A most ridiculous incident happened while I was travelling to work yesterday.

High on the Oscar wins, Slumdog Millionaire seemed to be the only topic everyone in the famed Virar locals of Mumbai could discuss. From Marwari businessmen to Gujarati share brokers to Bhayander’s Bengalis, everybody was talking about Danny Boyle’s movie with fervoured excitement. (I just came from a trip to Rajasthan and understand a little Marwari, I am half Gujarati, half Bengali, so I know what these little groups were talking about.) Halfway through the journey, a couple of MNC lads got in and caught the infection.

Now, they had very different things to say about the film. They did NOT like the movie and explained to each other why it was so. And there, the democratic right of free speech gave way to outrage. The Gujarati fellow began first. “You didn’t like the movie. It won Oscars, if you don’t like it, you are either too highbrow or you are simply unpatriotic.” Before the guys could react, another member said, “You guys look like BPO workers. Just because you take your cheque from a foreign company doesn’t mean you don’t respect Indian films.” The second bloke nervously hid his PSP in his laptop bag. By this time, everybody understood what had happened and began discussing the movie and the unpatriotic guys in great detail.

I sympathize with the two guys. I have kept my comments on the topic reserved because as a journalist, you are never supposed to take sides. But this is a blog, so let it be known, I found the hype exceeding the content of the movie. And 8 Oscars was more than I could digest. A friend of mine put it perfectly when she sniggeringly told me, “This is just an outbreak of sympathy for Mumbai because of the terror attacks. Otherwise 8 Oscars for dirt, dust, grime, poverty and maimed beggars just doesn’t make sense.” Befuddled as I was while watching the award ceremony, I too felt she may be a tad bit right. Americans chose a Afro-African President who was sworn in just about a month ago, so an underdog story seems to be the perfect way to compliment the choice of Americans, the Oscar committee must’ve felt.

I am just glad I wasn’t having this conversation with my friend on the local train, else I may too have been called unpatriotic. Such intolerant are the times in which we live.

Image Credit: Ishane

Popularity: 16%

That is it and there they are- the two golden men in the hands of A R Rahman. Right from the day the Indian film industry has established its credibility, winning an Oscar has been a dream of everyone who is a part of the industry. Not that the awards in our own country are less reputed, perhaps winning an Oscar would give them an international fame. Every one had put an effort to win one. One movie, by far, has made its way into the nominations in international category and lost.

Rahman luckily landed into this project – Slumdog Millionaire which is supposed to be a Hollywood project based on the story of an Indian. As always, life is not a game of luck. It should be attributed with tremendous hard and smart work which has been exemplified by Rahman.

This hard work landed him into two different nominations and to no everybody’s surprise he managed to win both. Hurray!!! He carried himself in a very good way on an international dais and spoke with pride and thanked all.

Personally, I always thought that it’s only Rahman who could get an Oscar for sure if nominated and he did not prove me wrong. I love him.

I would also want to mention that there is another Indian who has won an Oscar the same night and he was Rasul Pookutty. He won the award in the category for Sound Mixing. I am proud of you too, Rasul.

Indian music has come of ages. Certainly we have landed in the international scene. Kudos to the music whizkids!

Image Credit: Kaushik Biswas

Popularity: 18%

11: 20 PM

Reese Witherspoon comes to present the Best Director Award. And guess who won the award ? It is Danny Boyle from Slumdog Millionaire. What a guy! In his speech he showed humility and apologized for not having given credit to his choreographer but gave his tribute to Mumbai and truly deservedly so.

Danny Boyle we love you.

11:27 PM

Halle Berry and Co comes on stage to present the Oscar for the Best Leading Lady. Anna Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep and Angelina Jolie

Kate cries while she gets praised.

Meryl Streep got nominated for the fifteenth time. And Angelina Jolie was a stunner …But the Oscar went to Kate Winslet…She recollects her shampoo bottle from her bathroom when she was eight years old. Madhavan just told me that her acting in “The Reader” was stupendous.

And now comes the next best category of awards

11:37 PM

Sir Ben Kingsley, Michael Douglas, Robert DeNeiro, Anthony Hopkins and Anthony Roda to award the best Actor’s award.

Richard Jenkins, Sean Penn, Frank Langella, Brad Pitt and Mickey Rourke gets nominated for the best actor’s award.

The Oscar Award for the Best Actor goes to Sean Penn. There was a standing ovation from the crowd. Sean Penn says “ You don’t know how difficult it is appreciate myself”. The words that followed after that was very impressive – a great speech. His humility was seen when he appreciated Mickey Rourke- the comeback kid.

11: 47 PM

Steven Spielberg comes on stage to present The Best Picture.

Frost/ Nixon, The Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Reader are the ones nominated in the Best Picture category.

And the Oscar Award for The Best Picture goes to Slumdog Millionaire. The Producer Christian Colson, along with the entourage reached the stage to collect the award.

What a moment for Slumdog Millionaire, Mumbai and India !

12:00 AM on 23rd Feb’09– Off to sleep. Good night, have to wake up early for office, tomorrow. Have a great week, everyone!

Jai Ho! Jai Ho!

Image Credit: MasterOrz

Popularity: 19%

Will Smith comes on stage to present the award for the best action movies. The Academy awards for best action movie goes to Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Eric Barba, Steve Preeg accepted the award. This one is the third one for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. I need to watch this movie now.

The award for Sound Editing goes to The Dark Night and the award is accepted by Richard King.

The award for best Sound Mixing goes to Resul Pookutty for Slumdog Millionaire. Resul says history is being handed to him. How true. We are proud of you, Resul Pookutty. India Special salutes you!

Another one..

The award for best Film Editing goes to Dickens for Slumdog Millionaire. What a night this is turning out to be for India. This is the 6^th award for India.

Slumdog Millionaire has definitely put India on the map. I hope the Indian public wakes up and gives the crew a rousing welcome like they did for the cricketers and Olympians.

Three cheers for Slumdog….Hip Hip Hurray! (3 times)

Am I too excited…I hope there is more!

Popularity: 28%

Editor’s note : This article was originally published on Jan 12, 2009 even before it got nominated for the Oscars.

Caution: The article contains spoilers to the movie and reading further may reduce the joy of actually watching it.

First of all, congratulations to the crew of “Slumdog Millionaire” for winning the Golden Globe and other awards. Special congratulations to the movie director Danny Boyle and AR Rahman. Danny Boyle has succeeded in creating a movie that viewers are going crazy about.

The movie begins with the protogonist Jamaal Malik (played by Dev Patel), a Mumbai slumdweller and serving tea at a call center, being interrogated by the Mumbai police. He is suspected of committing fraud while answering all the questions leading to the 20 million rupee question in the Kaun Banega Crorepathi (KBC) program.

Jamaal explains each of his life experiences that help him answer the questions on the KBC program. The experience takes us through the tough life Jamaal has had and touches upon uncomfortable issues like the shocking Mumbai slum life, communal riots, child begging rackets, child prostituition, the other side of Agra and the Mumbai underworld. It also takes us through India’s economic development, the call centers and globalization.

The film essentially showcauses the two key relationships in Jamaal’s life- one with his elder brother Salim and the other with his true love- Latika. Whereas Jamaal is an innocent boy with only goodness in him, Salim is more complex. He rescues Jamaal from critical situations but also causes Jamaal considerable anguish by becoming a part of the underworld and also separting Jamaal from Latika forcibly. But Jamaal is undeterred in his quest to regain his true love and finally triumphs. Salim’s love for his younger brother Jamaal also triumphs in the end.

Interestingly, Jamaal also wins the KBC contest and wins Rs.20 million but that is not really what Jamaal is after. The movie ends with a delightful song and dance number and it ends that way for a reason. Watch the movie to find out.

This is a great rag to riches movie which makes the viewers feel good at the end. No wonder the movie is a hit abroad. The cast includes Anil Kapoor, Irfaan Khan, Mahesh Manjrekar and Saurab Shukla. The music by AR Rahman is excellent (not his best though) and the soundtrack, especially “O Saya” grows on you.

Now, this brings us to the question – Will “Slumdog Millionaire” win the Oscars? The film already has won 4 Golden Globe  awards and is a solid contender for the Oscar awards.

The coverage in the western press has been extremely positive. From Chicago Sun-Times to People , New York Times and Wall Street Journal the reviews have been outstanding.  Wall Street Journal goes on to praise it as a good movie for the bad times.

I am however surprised by the hostile reaction of the Indians who have seen the movie who complain it as over-hyped and show India in a bad light. Agreed the movie has some dark moments and can create a negative impression of India. But then what is shown is reality from which we cannot escape. Perhaps they should see “Oliver Twist” before complaining. Moreover, the complaint is missing the whole point.

At the end of it, the movie will be remembered not for its depiction of India but as a movie that celebrates the triumph of goodness, hope and real love.  And that in India, it is possible even for a “slumdog” (not used in a derogatory way) to become a “millionaire“.

As far as awards are concerned, my gut feeling is, this movie will bring Oscars to India. “Maybe, its written”. If you have already seen the movie, you know what I mean.

My recommendation:you may know the story, there are flaws in the movie,but watch it for its grand finale and also the joyous movie viewing experience.

PS: Watch this amazing video

Image Credit: Itdan

Popularity: 20%

Ok, the Oscar nominations are out and the underdog Slumdog Millionaire is nominated in 10 categories. And after winning the Golden Globe, AR Rahman has three nominations! Yes!

Best Background Score
Best Song 1: O…Saya
Best Song 2: Jai Ho…

While it Oscar is perhaps not a measure for talent of AR Rahman, but I wish he wins it for the sake of it. And makes me wonder if he will bring home not one but two of those men

I definitely feel that AR Rahman has done better work than Slumdog Millionaire, and if he wins this, then he world will sit up and take notice of what talent this man possesses.

Other categories that Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated are:

Cinematography,Directing, Film Editing, Motion Picture of the Year, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Screenplay.

I wish there will be a time, when countries all over the world will compare their musician to Rahman and call them something like “Rahman of the West”.

All the best AR Rahman!

Popularity: 12%

As they say, when it rains it pours. So is the case with life as well. Who knew that the first couple of weeks of 2009 will be that of the Devs and of The Devil ?

Interestingly, the first two weeks in January saw a couple of “Devs” coming to  limelight. When there is Dev, can you ever ignore Devils?

Dev “Slumdog” Patel

Dev Patel a.k.a Slumdog with his super duper role in Slumdog Millionaire has impressed the world cinema and has become an international celebrity overnight. What started as a coincidental introduction to acting, soon became a reality thanks to Danny Boyle and his immaculate adaptation of a simple story very well told. That doesn’t take away anything from this young kid who is all set to be the Jewel in the Crown. So much for the Bollywood and its Khandaan!

SomDev DevVarman

While Dev Patel sizzled and dizzled, another Dev made history in Chennai. SomDev DevVarman became the rising star of Indian tennis, after beating Carlos Moya and a few others to reach the finals of an ATP tournament – something that we have not witnessed for a long time. Although he lost in the Chennai Open, Somdev has definitely made an impression. He is touted as India’s flagbearer in Tennis.

As Vishwanathan Anand pointed out “SomDev is quite the revelation of the event” and Vijay Amritraj compares him to Michael Chang. No wonder he has leapt into the Top 200 of the world.

The Devils ?

A week that saw so much of actions in Indian Sports and Entertainment world, Corporate India seemed to be in for the wrong reasons. Call it divine intervention or extreme coincidence, a week when you had the two Devs (meaning God in Hindi) bring laurels to India, there were this “Devil Brothers”  who cast their (d)evil aspersions out of pure greed and lust for money. No prizes for guessing !

Devil’s Advocate

Goes without saying, where there are The Devs and The Devils, can The Devil’s Advocate be left behind ? The Devil’s Advocate was also in the news on January 1^st – This time there was a role reversal and the Devil’s Advocate was on the other side of the dock… on a lighter note, of course!

Image Credit: Meanest Indian

Popularity: 9%

Slumdog Millionaire! Another face of metro India. This one definitely is yet another Rags-to-Riches story. That’s Slumdog Millionaire.

But there is a difference. There is no villain, or revenge or any romance behind the trees in this movie. The movie released on the 5th of December is directed by David Boyle who has a few movies like Shallow Grave, A Life Less Ordinary & The Beach to his credit. Based on Vikas Swaroop’s story, the entire movie revolves around Jamaal, a poor child who grows up in the slums of Mumbai.

The movie starts with an almost millionaire Jamaal being interrogated in a police station for his suspected involvement in a fraud which is believed to have helped him win the acclaimed game show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’. Irfan Khan, playing the inspector’s role tries to get Jamaal to confess to the fraud. Jamaal reveals how experiences from his life help him win the game.

Each question takes the audience back into Jamaal’s, his brother Salim’s and his love interest Lathika’s life. Life in slums makes him a beaten slum dog. Experiences like the death of his mother in the Hindu-Muslim riots, a small stint with the tourists in Agra, transformation of his brother Salim into a gangster are the key to his answers in the game show. There is a subtle romance shown between Jamaal & Lathika throughout the movie.

The movie highlights problems in India like begging on streets, life in slums, poverty, child prostitution, betting etc. It shows how children from slums are forced into a life of crime, sex & hatred.

Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan and Saurabh Shukla have done a great job. But it’s worth mentioning the work done by the small lot of actors who morphed themselves into the characters of slum dogs. Dev Patel, Tanay Chheda, Ayush Khedekar and Vikas Swaroop play the main character Jamaal.

Music is by none other than A R Rehman. The back ground scores and a few tracks are in sync with the movie’s pace. The album sounds enchanting.  The movie has been edited to perfection and keeps the audience glued to their seats. It’s a gripping 120 minute long movie.

There are a few drawbacks in the movie which can go unnoticed or be ignored. The movie is a definite watch and has been nominated for many international awards. It has bagged Golden globes for best drama, director, screenplay and music score.

A rating of 8 out of 10 for the movie.

Don’t miss it.

Popularity: 32%

AR Rahman, creates history by becoming the first Indian to win of Golden Globe Award. He won this award for excellent background score he composed for the latest movie, Slumdog Millionaire, yesterday, 11th Jan 2008.

The underog called Slumdog Millionaire, sweeped all awards in categories it was nominated for. It won four awards including Best Film, Best Directory, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score.

ARR who is revered as Mozart of Madras has made his presence felt worldwide with this. While his other international works got him a lot of acclaim, this definitely makes him known to folks he was unknown so far.

It was a great day for Indians at Golden Globe as it was not only AR Rahman who was present at the ceremony. Sharukh Khan was the one to present the award to Slumdog Millionaire and was another first of Indian film representation at the awards ceremony.

Slumdog Millionaire is already a favorite for Oscars and may be we are in for more surprises too.

For now… AR Rahman rocks!

Golden Globe Nominations and Winners

Watch award event

Popularity: 18%

I will give credit to Danny Boyle (Director) for handling the movie nicely especially some of the sensitive topics. I will not bore you all repeating about the story, which revolves around this 18-year-old guy from slums cruising towards winning the multi-millionaire game to find his love of life.

The story starts mocking Jamal (the slum guy) on the show referring him as a “chai wala” (a tea supplier) playing who wants to be a millionaire game. He slowly gains confidence of the audience and whole nation when he starts answering all the questions relating them with events happened past in his life. You must watch the movie to see how he relates each answer to the past events. Although its sheer luck factor for Jamal to get questions in the game for answers he can relate. Otherwise a guy who does not know the image of Gandhi on a 1000-rupee note can answer a question about image on 100-dollar denomination. Anil Kapoor as usual acted very well in the movie as the show compeer. Jamal could answer all questions in the game based on past events but the last one. So go watch it how he answers the last question and finds his lady love.

Some excellent performances from all actors make this movie look real and touching. Every kid who acted in the movie leaves a lasting impression. “Feel Good movie of decade”, is how this movie is being promoted and it doesn’t seem exaggerating once you watch it.

Conclusion: Nice movie. Good direction, excellent background score by AR Rahman. But there are couple of disturbing scenes shown in the movie on poverty. Not that they aren’t true, but I guess all these days we have struggled lot to improve our India’s image from “Poor” to advanced state of developing nation. I am yet to see a movie by a foreign director on a new concept other than poverty in India.

Go watch this one!

Rating: ****1/2

Popularity: 18%