Oscar millionaire
Months after seeing Slumdog, I witnessed the funniest box office hard sell at an arthouse cinema:
White box office clerk: [Waiting]
Two Latina girls: Two for Milk, please.
Clerk: Oh, no, you want to see Slumdog.
Girls: Is it good?
Clerk: It’s awesome. It’s in English and Indian — is that what it’s called? — but don’t worry, it’s got really cool subtitles.
Girls: I dunno…
Desi girl in next line: It’s really good.
Her mom: But it’s so depressing, ya, it’s like a documentary.
Clerk: [Has WTF? expression over uplifting crowd-pleaser. Hands over 2 Slumdog tickets.]
Girls: Hey, what happened to our Milk tickets?
Slumdog has now gotten nominations from a slew of professional organizations — the director, writer and cinematographer guilds — as well as the Golden Globes and other biggies. An Academy Award seems all but assured.
Which is a little surprising. First, because the movie is fun and sensory but not sublime. And second, because the notion that Anil Kapoor, last seen going full retard in Yuvvraaj, could be in an Oscar-winning movie is surreal. He’s been in far better movies — I loved Viraasat and was weaned on Kapoor movies too. But unlike Aamir Khan, he’s never pretended to be more than a ham-fisted Bollywood entertainer.
I’ve heard plenty of comments about how a New India flick would never win an Oscar, because the Western appetite for exoticized poverty is bottomless. But Boyle did a good job skirting that critique IMO, bringing in Loveleen Tandan to get the details right and keeping his trademark style. Right down to the shot of rupees in a bathtub, Slumdog Millionaire is a virtual twin of Boyle’s under-seen Millions, about an adorable young British boy who runs across a convict’s bag of loot.
So it’s not because of exotica that an Oscar win would surprise me. It’s because the movie is so mainstream, so sensory, so gut-based. It tells its story straight-out, there are few narrative tricks besides the quiz show structure. It’s not cerebral like Memento, mournful like Eastwood’s Oscar bait or ostentatiously desaturated like Capote. If Slumdog Millionaire wins best film, it will be like Indiana Jones winning. It would be a throwback to a time when mainstream swashbucklers (Braveheart, Dances With Wolves) were fêted and the Academy Awards resembled today’s People’s Choice Awards.
And Slumdog team — director, co-director, kids, Dev, Freida, Irrfan and all — for the laurels already won and for those to come, congratulations.
on Thursday, January 8th, 2009, 7:48 pm in Film › 
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Which is a little surprising. First, because the movie is fun and sensory but not sublime. And second, because the notion that Anil Kapoor, last seen going full retard in Yuvvraaj, could be in an Oscar-winning movie is surreal. He’s been in far better movies — I loved Viraasat and was weaned on Kapoor movies too. But unlike Aamir Khan, he’s never pretended to be more than a ham-fisted Bollywood entertainer.
Completely agreed on those two points - Slumdog’s pretty but a bit hollow, and how is Anil Kapoor, His Stacheliness, suddenly going arthouse?! It was actually the sheer surprise of that that made me/the PPCC fall into Anil Kapoorfied oblivion. And yes, Viraasat is a wonderful film. (And so is Mr. India… and Nayak… and Ram Lakhan… and Black & White… and all in radically different ways! The man is a genius. I’ve been totally converted.)
HOWEVER: going full retard? “Retard”? Really? Didn’t we all agree a long time ago that it’s just not cool to use that word anymore?
Oh yeah, apropos of His Stacheliness: Anil Kapoor just auctioned himself on eBay India and went for a pittance!
But unlike Aamir Khan, he’s never pretended to be more than a ham-fisted Bollywood entertainer.
You’re letting yourself down with statements like this, Ultra-B. This wouldn’t be true of any Bollywood actor, and isn’t true of Mr K either.
postPunkCinemaClub has obviously not seen Tropic Thunder if he is confused why manish would use FUllRetard. as a descriptor.
P.S.: Even if I did not see TT, I would have laughed at that usage. We need to lighten up.
Everyone I’ve talked to who’s seen this film can’t stop talking about the kids, how effective they were.
P.S.: Even if I did not see TT, I would have laughed at that usage. We need to lighten up.
No way, dude, on this one I agree with the politically correcters. Laughing at “retard”/jokes about “retards” is just harsh.
Tropic Thunder’s usage was ironic.
Fair enough, manish, I’ll reserve judgment til I see the movie.
I loved this movie, but, then, I love Dickens, and everyone is saying it’s a bit Oliver Twist-y, so that makes sense. I don’t think it’s hollow, I think there is a real core to the movie, it’s just that the film bothers to be straight-forward, entertaining, and without ironic detatchment, which is refreshing. I am so bored with irony. Enough, already, I get that you’re a hipster, movie-wallahs, please don’t try and impress me with it anymore. I also think it’s hilarious that real-life hipsters like the clerk mentioned above are grooving on a movie that is out of 1930s Hollywood, with clear cut villains and heros. It could be on Turner Movie Classics if you de-Indiafied and de-Bollywoodified it.
I also think the child actors, the young man who plays the older brother at the end (the oldest age of the three ages shown), and, yes, smarmy Anil Kapoor, could reasonably be said to have performances that are sublime. The performances are wonderful, again, the child actors have given some of the most natural and unaffect performances I have seen in some time. Good for them - hope they got paid well.
* I went a little nuts on the previous Frieda Pinto thread. What was that about? Hormones or something? Should you delete the more obnoxious comments, Manish Vij?
Viraasat is a remake of a Tamil film called Thevar Magan. I wonder if you have seen it, Manish? It’s worth watching.