1. Dev Patel was a miscast -
I truly believe Dev Patel was not his best in any of the scenes. Be it his accent, his jaw dropping vacant expression - nothing clicked with me. On the other hand the adult Salim brought a certain rough flavour that Dev Patel did not bring. That was needed considering we were talking about a street smart kid.
2. Important question- where was Freida driving to- towards the end? Any answers? In concept, yes - somewhere towards Jamal. But Jamal was busy with the crorepati program. Where was she going?
3.They dont teach 3 Musketeers in a school. Atleast not the school I went to. Its more of something that you would have by your bedside as a late night read rather than as a textbook in your school bag.
4. Why would Americans arrive in their own car in India only to be robbed is beyond me? Did they get their own car from America? Its more likely to be a tourist taxi. Is it that difficult to rob a car of its parts in India? Do you actually need to net a tourist in order to do that?
And finally- No Mr. Boyle, "slumdogs" in India dont suddenly start speaking in English when they are adults- Perhaps they can never speak English or can speak a smattering of it. Definitely not British English. Thats clearly a mockery of what the production house think of India.Perhaps its also a statement of the market this movie was expected to capture- definitely not the Indian market.
One also wonders- is SM a hit with the masses and the critics of the world because of the "harsh" realities it portrays? or is SM a hit because of the rags to riches story- sort of like the fairytale that one always imagines life to be?
For me, it portrayed India to be all about slums, poverty and call centres. That doesnt work- not because it is wrong to portray these, but because India is more than this. Perhaps its time one of our desi directors showed the world what we are about. But would the world care? For them, India is still a developing country and being able to talk in English still a surprise.
So poverty is not a shock - the developed India might be.
Tuesday 10 February 2009
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Not enough time..
When I was a kid, I used to wonder how adults made it through a year - working all 365 days a year. I mean as I saw it from my small eyes then, they had to do house work, office work each and every single day without any holiday!! That was amazing to me then. I would often say to myself that when I grew up I would take an off exactly the same way our school gave it. You know - summer vacations and winter vacations etc
Ha! Tough luck. As I found out after growing up, not only can I work 365 days a year, there are some days when I actually crave more work ( where did that come from?). And I can go working through an entire year without knowing how quickly a month has passed by, then a quarter and then a year. Those milestones seemed too big when I was a kid. My world ended and began with exam timetables and crossing them out once they got over (I still remember the bliss the crossing out gave me!)
And now sometimes I cant even find enough time to get things done, and wish a day was greater than 24 hours (havent you wished that?) or perhaps most importantly - evenings were much bigger than they usually are. I mean an evening should be more than the 3-4 hours we get. It should have like 5-6 hours! Wouldnt that be great?
Then there is the matter of work hours. Why in India are we working from 9-6 or 9-7 in certain companies or for certan people, even more than that? Other developed countries make the people work from 9-5. There should be labour laws against making us work more than required and making us think that time is not enough. Sure, there is time- only we have sold it to our employers. Thats actually quite a sad thought. However if you view time across various types of people- I mean working (labourers, IT prof, non IT prof), non working, then you would definitely not land up with a single definition of time. It gets more abstract as you reach out to more types of people. What would you then term as adequate use of the time given to you on a daily basis? example - I got my work done today, so it was enough or I got to relax a lot so it was enough.Or I got to do what I liked the most, hence time was enough. Or perhaps time is like one of those definitions given in a movie- Time is the only thing you cant touch, but can sense and feel.
Maybe the definition changes daily- but I know I am never going to look at time the way I did when I was a kid.
Ha! Tough luck. As I found out after growing up, not only can I work 365 days a year, there are some days when I actually crave more work ( where did that come from?). And I can go working through an entire year without knowing how quickly a month has passed by, then a quarter and then a year. Those milestones seemed too big when I was a kid. My world ended and began with exam timetables and crossing them out once they got over (I still remember the bliss the crossing out gave me!)
And now sometimes I cant even find enough time to get things done, and wish a day was greater than 24 hours (havent you wished that?) or perhaps most importantly - evenings were much bigger than they usually are. I mean an evening should be more than the 3-4 hours we get. It should have like 5-6 hours! Wouldnt that be great?
Then there is the matter of work hours. Why in India are we working from 9-6 or 9-7 in certain companies or for certan people, even more than that? Other developed countries make the people work from 9-5. There should be labour laws against making us work more than required and making us think that time is not enough. Sure, there is time- only we have sold it to our employers. Thats actually quite a sad thought. However if you view time across various types of people- I mean working (labourers, IT prof, non IT prof), non working, then you would definitely not land up with a single definition of time. It gets more abstract as you reach out to more types of people. What would you then term as adequate use of the time given to you on a daily basis? example - I got my work done today, so it was enough or I got to relax a lot so it was enough.Or I got to do what I liked the most, hence time was enough. Or perhaps time is like one of those definitions given in a movie- Time is the only thing you cant touch, but can sense and feel.
Maybe the definition changes daily- but I know I am never going to look at time the way I did when I was a kid.
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