Metrics
Genre:
Drama, Hollywood
Rating:
8.1 /10
Audience:
Adults. Indians who have some stomach. Profanity, explicit content.
Rewatch Time:
It's super story-based, so probably only once.
Winner:
Jamal Malik (Dev Patel)
Review
Man, the acting in this one was definitely something. Even the child actors seemed to pile on the emotions. As adults, Latika (Freida Pinto) and Salim (Madhur Mittal) both did great as well, but their screen time was so limited that it wasn't comparable to Patel. Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan did decent jobs as veteran actors in their respective roles too, considering they were effectively acting in a second language. The story itself is really great, and keeps the suspense building in a way that keeps the drama, fulfills some happiness for the audience and characters, but doesn't break the “realism” that's been established as the USP of this movie. Of course, Jamal, Salim, and Latika's stories as orphans or “slumdogs” and their suffering might be portrayed in a manner that might seem completely unimaginable and detached from most western viewers, but such a story is seldom out of the public eye in developing countries - it's good to see that they're being recognized and elevated to a larger global audience.
Spoiler Territory
The whole movie is pretty much spoilers, isn't it? Pretty much every scene from Jamal's childhood pays off during the game-show, and all the adult scenes are a part of the short arc in the present. My favourite was probably the whole ‘3 Musketeers' motif that was going on - made the last scene super powerful. But also Jamal having the brain to realize that Prem, the host, was lying to him was definitely a power move (because a liar definitely knows a liar). But yeah, I like how Jamal never gives up on Latika. On paper, Salim's character is so complex and messed up that it would be the best, but I don't know how I'd feel about him if I was Jamal. Then again, that ending scene was pretty cool. And Jai Ho is nice.