Slumdog Millionaire - Must Watch!!!!

So, aside from knowing that it was directed by Danny Boyle, and that he’s a genius, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from Slumdog Millionaire. I had no idea it was set in India, no idea that it involved the Hindi version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, I had no idea about anything. I’m glad I didn’t know anything about the film, or else I wouldn’t have been so spectacularly surprised. It’s such a beautifully compelling love story, and so much more. It’s definitely a must see.

In many years or maybe in decades you may get a chance to watch such a wonderful movie, and this time it is called “Slumdog Millionaire”. A movie that not only tells a story but shows us a path beyond surviving in this world, a world where love and life comes really hard, very hard for most of us.

“Jamal, an 18 year old orphan from the slums of Mumbai is yet to experience the biggest day of his life. Each chapter of his life reveals the key to the answer to one of the seemingly impossible quiz game show’s questions. It’s the answers he learned through his journey of life and the love that ultimately made him a millionaire.”

Undoubtedly, this film is one of the best movie I have ever seen all these years. It is based on the book Q and A written by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup, a brilliantly directed movie by Danny Boyle & Loveleen Tandan (co-director), awesome music by A.R Rahman, the superb casting & performance on screen and the mind-boggling over all presentation. You like everything about it and so it is done perfectly, as if you are witnessing something that happened just in front of you, connected with unbelievably real souls of an unknown world. I felt like, the story is just another reality, shocking, at times scary, very profound and thought provoking. In the end, it’s the love that remained the gift for the life turned luck.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is nothing short of a heartbreaking, soul-stirring, breathlessly guided glimpse into a life worth celebrating. For that, and not that alone, the film itself deserves to be celebrated just the same.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

I have now lost the count of how many times i have watched this movie..

So here is my first movie review:

Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

Director: Frank Darabont

Screenplay: Frank Darabont

Genre: Drama

Running time: 2 hrs 25 mins



CRITIQUE:


This has got to be one of the most enduring classics of our time. This is a superbly-written and directed film about a tale of hope, friendship, redemption and forgiveness that’s subtly enclosed under the outer shell of a prison movie. And when it speaks its bitter truths and hard-hitting realities, it goes straight to the heart. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION could have been a film that easily strays into melodrama and over-sentimentality, but its assured direction from classy filmmaker Frank Darabont makes sure it delivers its points, and its writing makes it all the more compelling to sit and watch.


What could have also been a prison break movie, one expects bullish characterisations of thuggy personas, stereotyped in prison films, with added violence and brutality. However, SHAWSHANK retains its dignity and gives more spotlight on the importance of storytelling in a gentle, quiet and dignified manner. We meet Andy Dufresne (an excellent Tim Robbins) who was wrongly sentenced of life imprisonment for allegedly murdering his wife and her lover. The film never says he’s guilty of the crime, and lets the audience ponder of his ambitiousness. The Shawshank Prison becomes his lair but neve his barricade. He led a clean life, albeit being molested, and found an unusual friendship with one of his inmates Red (Morgan Freeman delivers his seemingly best here). The narrative point of view shifts to Red as Freeman becomes the narrator, as he starts to identify himself and his wonderment to Andy’s deep-seated acceptance of his fate, as he claims his innocence despite of all the lies around him. This becomes his hope, and he never fails, to which leads to his mostly deserved freedom.


Based on Stephen King’s novella “The Shawshank Redemption and Rita Hayworth” (no, it’s not horror fiction, presumably King’s first non-horror writing piece), the tale transforms seamlessly to provide both a heartwarming and heartbreaking sincerity. Anyone who isn’t moved by the inexorable determination of Andy and his belief of the human spirit is a stone-cold anti human. Who doesn’t resolve to tears when Andy ambushes the Head’s office only to put on a classical music for the rest of his jail mates to hear outside? Who doesn’t feel touched by Freeman’s exposition of the old librarian who achieved freedom finally but remains “institutionalized”? It gives us the choice, either to “Get busy living, or get busy dying”.



VERDICT:

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is one of the most life-affirming films a human being could ever see – and when it does, it stays and will always do. This is beautiful, compelling, uplifting stuff.

Where the mind is without fear...

Where the mind is without fear
And the head is held high
Into that heaven of freedom,my father
Let my country awake ...
---Rabindranath Tagore

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