Who wants to be a millionaire ?
Jan. 29th, 2009 02:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aanjaliI saw Slumdog Millionaire yesterday and I have to admit that it's a really really really good film!
I can't even remember when was the last time I had this kind of impression on a film.
I read some overly negative critics about it but for me, they're absolutely not justified.
First, the journalists said that the film was full of clichés.
C'mon, have they ever been in India!?
I can assure you that if you wanna see what India is, you have to watch this film.
I saw it, I saw the poverty, the dirtiest cities in the world, children naked playing on piles of garbages, people begging in the streets, people sick, the non-existence of toilets or bathtub, the corrupted India, robbers...
This film perfectly depicts India.
BUT besides all that, you can see the most beautiful smiles in the world!
If you have a camera in your hands, children will gather around asking if you can take a picture of them, they wanna talk with you and try to teach you some Hindi words.
Well, they were quite surprised when I told them I knew the first verse of "Om Jai Jagdish Hare" by heart.
This is actually a prayer, the universal prayer.
There, you can also the most beautiful colors mixed all together, great clothes and stuff.
You discover a culture rhythmed by Bollywood music (or trucks horning on the roads), you naturally sing in the streets.
One funny thing is that you can hear people speaking Hinglish, they begin their sentences in English and just continue in Hindi (or another dialect).
You take a rickshaw, you buy bangles and much more unuseful stuff.
India is a very spiritual country and you can visit some temples around the cities.
If you go in small temples, people will be a bit surprised to see you, children will be intriguated but then, everyone comes to talks with you.
On the way, you notice an old fortune-teller who absolutely can't speak English but who wants to tell you what'll happen in your future.
In the bars, women are looking after the children, men are drinking a tea or a beer and when they're over, men all gather at the same place where you can see a teeny tiny mirror hung on a wall.
First, you're wondering what they're doing and you see them taking out their combs and arrange their hair! Fantastic.
When you're hungry, you eat... I don't know, nans or biryani for example with a hot massala tea.
Food tend to be really spicy there.
You ask if you can have something less hot, the guys move repeatedly their head from left to right as an answer.
Oh my God, he doesn't want to give me food... but that's just the way to say "yes" in India!
You wanna see different regions, in the North, you go to Jaipur and Jodhpur in Rajastan, territories of the kings.
Then you go to Agra to see something you can't find anywhere else in the world: the Taj Mahal!
Since you want to see the sunrise there, you wake up early and it's fucking cold outside at 6:00!!
I swear, you can't imagine how beautiful it is if you don't go there, it's much more impressive when you're in front of the mausoleum.
It' so... big, white, pure and shiny, you feel at peace there.
When you see some pictures you think well, it's nice but it's totally different when you actually see it for real.
Bollywood stores sell dream and try to make you buy VCDs though none of your players at home read that XD
But you end buying some CDs because you like the music and you ask around where you can find some DVD shop.
The journalist who criticized Slumdog Millionaire said that it was horrible to mix poverty and dream like that in a film, she though that it was really paradoxal, what was the aim of showing such poverty and such stupid dream?
Well, as I said, India sells dreams through the Bollywood films mainly, people actually want to watch that kind of cheesy love stories.
Cinema there is made to entertain everyone, the old, the young, men and women.
So when a movie isn't realistic enough, some journalist are harsh because it's not like reality.
But when some director catches the essence of India, no, reality is too horrible, let's not watch this. Hello?!
If there is one fucking point which we absolutely can't criticize in this film, it's that.
What you see in this film is a reality and if you happen to go to India, tell me if you think that this film looks fake.
I could go on writing everything I saw there, good as bad points, but this cut is already long enough I think.
Hummm, I may buy tickets to see the Bharati show (again).
I can't even remember when was the last time I had this kind of impression on a film.
I read some overly negative critics about it but for me, they're absolutely not justified.
First, the journalists said that the film was full of clichés.
C'mon, have they ever been in India!?
I can assure you that if you wanna see what India is, you have to watch this film.
I saw it, I saw the poverty, the dirtiest cities in the world, children naked playing on piles of garbages, people begging in the streets, people sick, the non-existence of toilets or bathtub, the corrupted India, robbers...
This film perfectly depicts India.
BUT besides all that, you can see the most beautiful smiles in the world!
If you have a camera in your hands, children will gather around asking if you can take a picture of them, they wanna talk with you and try to teach you some Hindi words.
Well, they were quite surprised when I told them I knew the first verse of "Om Jai Jagdish Hare" by heart.
This is actually a prayer, the universal prayer.
There, you can also the most beautiful colors mixed all together, great clothes and stuff.
You discover a culture rhythmed by Bollywood music (or trucks horning on the roads), you naturally sing in the streets.
One funny thing is that you can hear people speaking Hinglish, they begin their sentences in English and just continue in Hindi (or another dialect).
You take a rickshaw, you buy bangles and much more unuseful stuff.
India is a very spiritual country and you can visit some temples around the cities.
If you go in small temples, people will be a bit surprised to see you, children will be intriguated but then, everyone comes to talks with you.
On the way, you notice an old fortune-teller who absolutely can't speak English but who wants to tell you what'll happen in your future.
In the bars, women are looking after the children, men are drinking a tea or a beer and when they're over, men all gather at the same place where you can see a teeny tiny mirror hung on a wall.
First, you're wondering what they're doing and you see them taking out their combs and arrange their hair! Fantastic.
When you're hungry, you eat... I don't know, nans or biryani for example with a hot massala tea.
Food tend to be really spicy there.
You ask if you can have something less hot, the guys move repeatedly their head from left to right as an answer.
Oh my God, he doesn't want to give me food... but that's just the way to say "yes" in India!
You wanna see different regions, in the North, you go to Jaipur and Jodhpur in Rajastan, territories of the kings.
Then you go to Agra to see something you can't find anywhere else in the world: the Taj Mahal!
Since you want to see the sunrise there, you wake up early and it's fucking cold outside at 6:00!!
I swear, you can't imagine how beautiful it is if you don't go there, it's much more impressive when you're in front of the mausoleum.
It' so... big, white, pure and shiny, you feel at peace there.
When you see some pictures you think well, it's nice but it's totally different when you actually see it for real.
Bollywood stores sell dream and try to make you buy VCDs though none of your players at home read that XD
But you end buying some CDs because you like the music and you ask around where you can find some DVD shop.
The journalist who criticized Slumdog Millionaire said that it was horrible to mix poverty and dream like that in a film, she though that it was really paradoxal, what was the aim of showing such poverty and such stupid dream?
Well, as I said, India sells dreams through the Bollywood films mainly, people actually want to watch that kind of cheesy love stories.
Cinema there is made to entertain everyone, the old, the young, men and women.
So when a movie isn't realistic enough, some journalist are harsh because it's not like reality.
But when some director catches the essence of India, no, reality is too horrible, let's not watch this. Hello?!
If there is one fucking point which we absolutely can't criticize in this film, it's that.
What you see in this film is a reality and if you happen to go to India, tell me if you think that this film looks fake.
I could go on writing everything I saw there, good as bad points, but this cut is already long enough I think.
Hummm, I may buy tickets to see the Bharati show (again).
