Go To The Theatre And Watch This

I saw Slumdog Millionaire.  I realize that this officially makes me a terrible film student seeing as though it took me what, a month post-Oscars, to see the much buzzed about best picture, but whatever, at least I saw it.  I must say, all this hoopla is well deserved, and I see why it swept up virtually every statue during this year's awards circus.  

From its opening moment, Slumdog breathes vibrance and life unlike any film I've seen.  The marrying of pulsating music with the quick yet swiftly cut footage of children traversing the jungle of tattered shacks, brilliant colors, muck, radiating sunshine, and bustling streets which they call home enraptures your eyes, mind, and heart.  The temporal structure allows a plainly simple story to unfold with poignant complexity, surprising and horrifying the viewer along the way.  It is engaging, gripping, moving; it transports the viewer to another world so far from the creature comforts of America, and yet so wondrous and complete.  

I know there has been a decent amount of controversy surrounding Slumdog, primarily from the people of Mumbai, who feel exploited by their depiction in the film.  And I suppose I can see where they are coming from, in the sense that the slums are depicted as slums wrought with violence and corruption.  But I never got the sense that there was any smugness or disapproval in its representation; quite the opposite actually.  While there were some unpleasant scenes of physical child torture (which obvi I did not watch) and many scenes of psychological child torture, the culprit is not the slums of Mumbai, but rather the cruel men who prey upon unsuspecting orphaned children.  And those creeps exist everywhere. 

No, I think Mumbai is instead depicted with a sense of reverence and admiration.  Or at least that's how I view it.  One of Jamal's childhood memories consists of him getting the autograph of his favorite actor...while drenched in feces from head to toe.  The fact that Jamal's happiest moment occurs when he is literally covered in human shit creates nothing less than a beautifully poetic juxtaposition; it's moments like these which truly make Slumdog a joy to watch.