posted January 09, 2009 08:07 AM              

The BEST movie ever !!!!

Every moment is a revelation, only an American Director could accomplish such a feat.

Danny Boyle deserves an Oscar for his depiction of the reality of streer children.

posted January 09, 2009 11:00 AM            

quote:

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He may end up an Oscar winner, but the teen star of "Slumdog Millionaire" says he's a star by day, but just another kid told by his mom to clean up his room by night.

"I've been living two different lives," says Dev Patel, the star of the highly acclaimed romantic comedy.

"By day I've got the leading role in a movie, in spite of having no acting training and very little experience. That's weird in itself," he tells London's Daily Mail.

'And at night I go home and my mum is telling me to make my bed, keep my room tidy and help with the washing-up.

'It keeps my feet on the ground, stops me from letting it all go to my head.'

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posted January 09, 2009 11:10 AM              

Giong to get snowed in .....so a movie marathon this weekend sounds good.

posted January 12, 2009 08:49 PM              

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=C3H85BBN

(Run your cursor over the screen and click on the middle symbol that appears.)

I loved it, too.

posted February 25, 2009 02:54 PM            

I'm trying to formulate a worthy reply, but for now, I have nothing.

I'm touched more by sadness and tragedy than I am happiness. Just in life in general, I mean. I find a lot of beauty there. So on that level, it spoke to me.

posted February 25, 2009 07:51 PM              

because it make us shake.And wondering about how small our problems are,when facing this reality ( which btw i didnt knew it was like this in India).

Right now here in my country we are watching s brasilian novel called "Indianīs Path" or in portuguese" Caminho das Indias" - and i felt totally fascinated-so much diferent traditions,beautiful people,beautiful places.

When watching the film,i realised how we ALL need to do our best to ascend the Universal Conscience,making our contribution to a better world,more equality of rights and needs,more generosity torwards the ones who need...by sending love and light to the children,to the poors and neglected.

All that happens,wether bad or good..always appear based on thoughts.And those throughts,gathered from all Human kind,are the ones who accionates the action.

If each one of us,do our part by helping in ways we can(wether by prayer,by helping a poor in the street,or simply a nurtured gesture to a stranger)i believe things might start to be better.

posted February 26, 2009 03:42 AM              

So have the critics been unscathing and called it Poverty Porn.

How many here sincerely feel that such portrayals and our fixation with it IS Poverty Porn ?

I ask this because i am torn about thsi.I know the movie succeeded because it transfixed us with its Rags to Riches -underdog wins theme - it is the oldest story in a new form really.

I also ask this because though i grew up priveleged and protected from such experiences i know they dont sum up ALL the poor - not all poor in India live in slums for one and thus have different experiences involving lack.

For one i now know a girl not owning a perfume and slogging it in a field doesnt mean she is or has lesser than me and is not as happy as i am.

Thats the kind of poverty portrayal induced misperceptions of poverty.

I have met and observed simple peasant lifestyles - they look poor but they dont mind not owning a Big home and the amenities - they are poor but content in what they have and in no way desirous of our Pity or even compassion let alone help.

They eat sparesely and have better health than us - who think they are starving because they have lesser body fat - while we slog on the treadmill and diet.

I have known some far off relatives who stayed back in the villages when i went for a back to roots trip.
Mud hut,Simple food, no A.C. ..

Big happy smiles on all faces happy to see me - oblivious to the idea that they had lesser than i have.

Not them.

They do NOT think they have less.

Then why do we ?

So is it really Poverty Porn ?

A simulated imagined poverty trip for us to feel glad is not real ?

posted February 27, 2009 12:13 PM              

quote:

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are all things pastel and fuzzy in your world?

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No and precisely that - all things arent ugly and dark either . Thats why the movie is attracting litigation from Slum development social activists - they say it presents the absolute worst that slums witness without any talk of the dynamics or of the positve that exist.

For eg. a shanty in a mumbai slum costs around Rs. 500000.in a smaller city in India you can buy an apartment for that much.Go figure...

My housekeeper lives in the slum with her family. she and her husband work multiple jobs so their 3 kids are in college.the number of parents who force their kids into begging is a minority - in numbers it is large enough to be a Rs.20000000000 a year industry !!!

but still - kids who have parents aldready unemployed are likely to end up having those kinds of experiences - not the ones who have parents who work as skilled and unskilled labour....and so on and so forth.

because the movie doesnt make these points out it leaves us in a position of ambiguous empathy.

the slum residents asspciation so far has been the most vocal group that has attacked danny Boyle for the movie.You'd think they would want us to be aware and have our eyes opened right ?

but then why dont they ?

the film like i said is the oldest story - in a new package.

That the story revolves around the singluarly worst slum realities is what makes the climax more dramatic for us - as viewers right ?

quote:

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We Western moviegoers are like the clueless and callous tourists that Jamil and Salim prey upon in the movie -- surrounded by children whose lives are unimaginably hard, and yet completely blind to it. This was a wonderful movie, but uplifting? Entertaining?
http://community.nytimes.com/rate-review/movies.nyti mes.com/movie/415379/Slumdog-Millionaire/overview?sort=newest&offset=4

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Maybe thats what the slum dwellers find infuriating.That we think we are getting a handle on their reality from a film...

quote:

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but to say they are thin because they don't have enough food is a good thing is pretty far fetched venus.

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I meant a difference in diet and lifestyle.

How is a starving slumdog any worse than the obese kids we see in our homes - stuck to their Nintendos munching Cheese burgers with the arteries of a 40 yr old ?