Monday 15 December, 2008

Show what people want to see and win a golden globe (nomination)

ok... Slumdog millionaire is a decent movie. Especially if you watch it the day after watching TDTESS (read the previous post), it may even look like the movie of the millennium. But it is definitely not worth the reviews it received. The US and the western world in general likes to see India (read: All the third world countries) as a country where you don't find anything good. They like to see people shitting on the road, forcing children into begging and prostitution, devising innovative plans to con foreigners. That is exactly what the movie show. Agreed, the child artists in the movie are really amusing and fun to watch. But the picture of India that is being portrayed is not something I would like to see on the celluloid. I just get the feeling that this portrayal has a lot to do with most of those (except Rehman's) golden globes nominations. Because second of the movie is nothing but good old (predictable) hindi cinema. And what the hell is Anil Kapoor doing there ? His character is simply incomprehensible (to me).

I am not saying that the movie is bad. It is nice movie to watch and everyone should watch it. It's some good fun but it's definitely not up to the reviews/nominations it has received.

P.S. In all these negative things, I must not forget to mention how superb job Rehman has done in the movie. Really nice soundtrack!

How can you (pretend to) likeTDTESS ?

The Day The Earth Stood Still... The name itself suggests something creepy about the movie. We all think that it's a sci-fi thriller and walk in the hall. But We are all disappointed. Even if you get free passes, the movie isn't worth the time you spend. It's nothing but crap.

But... there may be other ways of looking at it. Rather than considering the movie as a Sci-fi thriller look at it as a philosophical movie. All the aliens, there space-spheres(?), which incidentally look like blown up models of marbles I used to play as a kid, are a metaphor to all the evil things on the earth. The representative of The President of the United States (aka "the eyes and ears of the president and the vice-president") is a metaphor for ... The President of united States. Keanu Reeves is a metaphor to the UN and UNICEF etc. etc. who are hopelessly trying to establish peace. jennifer Conelly is a metaphor to few honest people going about their business without hurting anyone. The irritating kid represents the confused "rest of the world". With this frame of mind, if you watch the movie, it really isn't all that bad. Despite the funny iron-man, with a light bulb in his head, which disintegrates into alien bugs (the man not the bulb), the movie MAY still make some sense. So go and try to pretend to like it.