This week the Illprofessors took a step away from "black" cinema which is a little refreshing for the blog. When Slumdog Millionaire first started getting a lot of buzz, I knew nothing about it. A title says a lot about a movie and this one took my mind directly to a foreign indie kind of film that would go right over my head. However, my professor (Phill Boogie) mentioned it in class one day and I thoroughly trust his movie judgement (gunning for some extra credit here lol). "Slumdog Millionaire" was officially on my radar. So my movie buddy and I made the $7.50 investment (student discounts are the best! Thanks Regal) and gave this film that people can't stop talking about a try...
WOW! This movie was so visually stimulating and engaging. It appealed to your emotions and inserted you in lives of the characters from the opening scene. I don't want to spoil this for anybody who hasn't seen this movie so I won't go too deep in the plot. However, it was good and this one caught me by surprise. Salim was my absolute favorite characters. If we ever do a post about "gangstas" and villians in film, I'm bringing up this guy. Absolute G!
With all of that out of the way, let's get to the real discussion. Phill Boogie made a valid point in our personal discussion as well as in the podcast. Although Slumdog Millionaire's overall story takes away from the fact that this is at the core a "boy meets girl" film, the one thing it lacked was establishing faith in the relationship the main character Jamal was chasing after. A short background, Jamal loves Latika. Jamal and his brother Salim save Latika during a Muslim-Hindu riot. Salim does not want to look out for Jamal as well as Latika. The three fall victim to a gangster who exploits children. Salim and Jamal get away, Latika doesn't. Years go by, Jamal has never forgotten Latika and goes on the Indian "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" in hopes she'll see him there. Phill Boogie mentioned that he felt like Jamal was more obessed with Latika than in love. I would have to agree to a certain extent. As a viewer who was not expecting much when I watched this movie, the love that Jamal felt for Latika was appealing to me. I will admit maybe it's the fact I'm a woman and what woman doesn't love it when the guy chases a girl so fervently. As a critic, I will have to say Phill Boogie is right when he says it got a little ridiculous. Out of all the things Jamal deals with in his short 18 years of life, you would have to think that he would've definitely gotten over Latika long ago (as his brother Salim crudy jokes at one point in the movie and makes reference to his "girl getting" abilities to keep it PG lol). I felt that Jamal's age and his experiences are part of what establishes his love for Latika.
Shifting gears a little bit, I thought the flashback element was a nice touch. I feel like flashbacks don't always do a good job of making the connection to the present but Slumdog Millionaire did a good job of this. The flashbacks kept me engaged in Jamal's character development. Had I known about how the director Danny Boyle came up with the title for the movie I would have probably gone in with a bias. Creating a name for this culture that you are not apart of is hard to justify. To label him slumdog based off of an analysis of the animals in the slums of India is leaning a little too close to racist.
Well I don't want to go into too much detail because I believe you should see this movie without any outside influences and then make your judgements purely based on your own experience. So go forth. Spend the 10 bucks. It's definitely worth it.
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