A late Happy New Year!
This New Year so far has been a very interesting one for me. The first day was spent shopping, drinking and spending good time with family in Bangkok. I also got a great massage. :)
Back in Mumbai, work continues as usual... with feelings of randomness, madness and some moments of happiness, all thrown in for good measure.
Met up with a really close friend last week, who I haven't seen in 3 years, and that felt so nice!
Also, happened to watch a screening of Slumdog Crorepati (the Hindi version). Watch this version if you understand Hindi. It’s probably better cause you don’t have to read subtitles!
I went in with some preconceived notions, as I had heard some reviews from friends. I was told that it's extremely gritty and portrays a side of India that is not very pleasant, and that kind of hits you in the face. I was also curious to see if the film is worth all the hype (this was before the Golden Globes were announced).
Well here’s my verdict for whatever its worth. I loved the film. It made me feel a lot of things. Yes, it made me cringe at times. But those things I cringed at are the reality of this country that I have so easily learnt to ignore and forget. It’s almost like those things have been relegated to a part of my memory that does not exist.
By now everyone knows that the film is about this young man called Jamal who wins Kaun Banega Crorepati contest. The film unravels how someone who never went to a proper school knew all of those answers. Shot in the by lanes of the bastis in Juhu and Versova - the grime, the muck, the filth is shot so beautifully. The camera work is fantastic. I have always said that I don’t want to be a film maker. But this one made me want to pick up a camera and tell a story visually…
It also made me want to stretch open my arms and take as many street kids home as I could. When you see those faces and see their pain and struggle, you realise what terrible lives they have. At an age when children need to be pampered and protected, these kids are left to fight for their lives.
But the film is as much about hope and triumph as it if about despair and poverty.
The background score is amazing. It really lifts the film and adds a zing to it.
I have read reviews where some describe this film as a typical Bollywood story shot with Hollywood sensibility. While, in some ways I would have to agree but aren't films all about the way you tell a story? Stories most often are always the same it’s the narrative and the visual treatment that makes its different.
Cheers to Danny Boyle and his producers who had the courage and conviction to pick such a story, cast such wonderful, relatively unknown faces, and to tell it in a simple but fantastic way!
Also, came across this music video of this song called “Tough Cookie” by Jalebee Cartel and loved it. I must say that Indian performers are getting on par with their international counterparts. Well executed cool video and funky song.
Finally, just feeling very positive and optimistic at the start of the year… another year with lots of time to follow your dreams and live life the way you want too!
Hope it’s a fun and safe year for all of us!
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3 comments:
Watched the english version and i think its truly fantastic. It does have a mix of Bollywood and Hollywood to it, but i think its fair enough to cater to both the sides.
What has been shown in the movie perhaps exists in the back alley of our plush houses. As rightly put by you, the only reason why it hits us hard is because we have learnt to ignore it.
Hi,
I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be very good.. u write well.. Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog ‘To read is to travel without moving an inch’ took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too;
BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!
This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :)
Cheers,
Ray
Hola! Where have the blog posts in your head hiding? Start blogging dear, although i suspect most of your weekends would be spent shuttling to home town henceforth.
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