Rupee Millionaire

Let me apologize in advance for the long delay in posting a fresh movie review to our blog. I will not, however, apologize for Matthew not posting a fresh movie review because he has a new job, new apartment and new lease on life! Look out California, Matthew is back to managing people. Although I do not know how many people Matthew is managing, or what he is asking them to do on a daily basis…I am hoping that this nugget will inspire him to set aside a few minutes from his newly busy schedule to wax poetically about his new job, house and maybe even the ladies. Congratulations Matthew and welcome back to the world of 8 to 5 (When Dolly Parton was working 9 to 5 did she get a lunch hour).

I have actually rented and/or attended several movies within the past month. I have seen I Love You Man, Watchmen, Miracle at St. Anna, Semi-Pro (again), Role Models and an unfortunate glance at Cynthia Nixon’s naked body while flipping past the Sex in the City movie. I am actually going back and forth on whether to keep in the “unfortunate glance” remark with regard to seeing that body because two of the other movies on my list have glaring (and in one case glowing) male nudity without proper warning. Since I have already discussed this topic in a previous review I won’t harp on it again, but we really need to stop this ball (no pun intended) from rolling any further down the mountain. On the other hand, I really do appreciate the fact that Malin Akerman is not embarrassed by her body and is willing to provide tasteful, artistic nudity in almost all of her films (Watchmen, The Heartbreak Kid, Harold & Kumar).

All of that aside, I would like to type a few paragraphs with regard to the movie I saw most recently called Slumdog Millionaire. I am sure all of you have heard of this movie as it was the winner of multiple awards this past year including the Oscars for Achievement in Screenplay, Original Song, Director and Best Motion Picture. I knew quite a bit about this film just based on all of the Oscar buzz and water cooler talk. I knew that the main character of the film was a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and all of the questions on this quiz show related to an experience he had in his life. I also knew that the film was based in India and was quite the social statement with regard to poverty and the reality of the 2nd World.

What I don’t know is whether or not there is a 2nd World. I know there is a 1st World and I know there is a 3rd World but have you ever heard anyone talk about the 2nd World? Wouldn’t you have to put a country like India in the 2nd World? I think they could be considered a 1st World country based on their GDP but it is also one of the poorest and most illiterate countries on Earth. I will save this debate for another forum but right before you go to sleep tonight, turn to your bed-mate and ask he or she “where would you rank India from a socio-economic global prospective?”

So the film moved along OK, it was definitely eye opening to see the scale of poverty in India and the challenges the Indian people face everyday. It will remind you how lucky we are to have clean running water, indoor plumbing and reliable electricity here in the good-ole US of A. It will also make you think just how fortunate we were as a young Nation to grow up in the 18th and 19th Century when so many of the ugly faces of Capitalism (this is really a comment on economies of scale) were not pressing to keep us from realizing our economic independence. That is not to say that I am in any way anti-Capitalism, but Capitalism as an economic system that can be painfully exploited.

OK, so we have talked about Cynthia Nixon’s naked body, India’s place in the world’s pecking order and a popular quiz show. Where could we possibly go from here? How about this one; when you watch Slumdog Millionaire keep a close eye on the three main characters (Jamal, Salim and Latika). Since I know very little about children this may be how it actually works but it sure looked like the ages of the children fluctuated from very young, to young, to getting older, back to young and then straight to older. Who knows, maybe the Benjamin Button disease originated in India.

That makes me wonder, if you had that problem would you tell anyone? Other than the confusion in wardrobe and medicine cabinet contents…would you seek treatment for a disease where you would randomly go from young to old and back to young? I guess it would be like being stuck in the movie 18 Again except that sometimes you would be George Burns and sometimes you would be Charlie Schlatter (what ever happened to that guy? My sister used to love him).

Why wasn’t Regis hosting Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I mean, the guy they had hosting the show in the movie was about as Indian as Regis is human. I think the accent the host used must have come from the same prop closet as the accent Jon Voight used in Anaconda. Wouldn’t the whole movie have been more fun if Regis had portrayed himself? Can’t you just see Regis trying to pronounce the name Jamal Malik and reading Indian trivia questions? And how great would it have been if Regis was the one beating up Jamal while accusing him of cheating! Regis could have been to India what Jerry Lewis is to France.

So, to wrap this one up Slumdog Millionaire won a lot of awards, opened up a lot of eyes to the Indian sub-continent and overtook The Love Guru for best ending dance sequence.

Warren