JAI HO! INDEED
There is nothing Bollywood watchers love more than a good song and dance number. Item songs as they are now being called.
The latest trend is to have an item song play during the end credits. I think it started with Kaal and then continued with a host of other movies. But most times they are just an excuse for people to begin to make their way to the exit save for a few die hard fans. The only movie where a sizeable number stayed back was Jab We Met for that rambunctious Mauja hi Mauja.
Last Saturday evening I was at a packed theatre in Abu Dhabi and at the end when Jai Ho! began to play with the end titles, not a single soul stood up.
The latest trend is to have an item song play during the end credits. I think it started with Kaal and then continued with a host of other movies. But most times they are just an excuse for people to begin to make their way to the exit save for a few die hard fans. The only movie where a sizeable number stayed back was Jab We Met for that rambunctious Mauja hi Mauja.Last Saturday evening I was at a packed theatre in Abu Dhabi and at the end when Jai Ho! began to play with the end titles, not a single soul stood up.
And the audience was almost 60% non Asian. 
The choreography wasn’t great (typical school dance type with arms akimbo, claps etc) but people weren’t staying back for that. They were staying back because they didn’t want to leave the characters they had come to know and moreover love during the last 2 hours.
And as you must have guessed by now the movie was Slumdog Millionaire.
The media has been on a overdrive with this movie so I will spare you details you already know… just watch the movie if you haven’t and if you have, then watch it again…. The second viewing brings so many details to the fore that you missed during the first frenetic ride.
Many of my friends felt the elder brother was a villain despite the change of heart in the end but I felt he was the most pragmatic character in the movie.
Many of my friends felt the elder brother was a villain despite the change of heart in the end but I felt he was the most pragmatic character in the movie.
And also the saddest.
In the end as he sits in a tub full of 500 rupee notes you can’t help but feel sorry for him knowing that he would give anything to be in Jamal’s shoes.
By the way the co-director, being Indian, should also have looked into some details like Kareena dancing to Yuva’s Fanaa on TV in the end while Don’s Aaaj Ki Raat plays loudly or the fact that Ram in hindu mythology isn’t depicted as blue (that’s Krishna) or again that the bhajan Darshan Do Ghanshyaam was penned by Gopal Singh Nepali and not Surdas. But then G S Nepali has never ever been given his due just like Ram Singh Thakur who never got the recognition for composing Jana Gana Mana the Indian national Anthem. (check my post in the archives dated Sept 30, 2007)
Many of you will have watched Danny Boye’s previous movies like Trainspotting (brilliant), 28 Days Later (great again), The Beach (average) but its his other movie that this is closest to Slumdog. Millions. If you can try and get hold of a copy (or download it as I doubt it will be easily available) and watch one of the sweetest stories every made. You can catch my take on it and Roger Ebert’s review if you go to the archives of this blog (October 13, 2006).
Enjoy
Ciao
Vish
By the way the co-director, being Indian, should also have looked into some details like Kareena dancing to Yuva’s Fanaa on TV in the end while Don’s Aaaj Ki Raat plays loudly or the fact that Ram in hindu mythology isn’t depicted as blue (that’s Krishna) or again that the bhajan Darshan Do Ghanshyaam was penned by Gopal Singh Nepali and not Surdas. But then G S Nepali has never ever been given his due just like Ram Singh Thakur who never got the recognition for composing Jana Gana Mana the Indian national Anthem. (check my post in the archives dated Sept 30, 2007)
Many of you will have watched Danny Boye’s previous movies like Trainspotting (brilliant), 28 Days Later (great again), The Beach (average) but its his other movie that this is closest to Slumdog. Millions. If you can try and get hold of a copy (or download it as I doubt it will be easily available) and watch one of the sweetest stories every made. You can catch my take on it and Roger Ebert’s review if you go to the archives of this blog (October 13, 2006).
Enjoy
Ciao
Vish
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