Fresh Air Interview with Danny Boyle, director of Slumdog Millionaire. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96905439
regards, ranjith On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 11:58 AM, Gopal Srinivasan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > 'Slumdog Millionaire': Mumbai Jackpot > Listen Now add to playlist > > Enlarge > > Ishika Mohan > His > final answer: With the odds against him, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) gives > game-show host Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) a run for his money. Fox > Searchlight > > > > Slumdog Millionaire > > * Directors: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan > * Genre: Drama, Romance > * Running Time: 120 minutes > Rated R for some violence, disturbing images and language. > > Enlarge > > Ishika Mohan > The > police inspector (Irfan Khan) refuses to believe that the "slumdog" > Jamal just "knew the answers," insisting his success on the show is > just a scam. Fox Searchlight > > > > "'Slumdog' > could hardly be more cross-cultural — a romantic adventure set in > India, financed in Europe, made by English filmmakers, featuring Muslim > characters speaking Hindi ... with a climax hinging on the answer to a > question about a French novel." > > > > Watch Clips > 'I'd Like To Phone A Friend' > add 'Kids On The Train' > add 'Are You Nervous?' > add > > > > Enlarge > > Ishika Mohan > Jamal Malik is constantly trying to rescue Latika (Freida Pinto), the love > of his life, from catastrophe. Fox Searchlight > > > All Things Considered, November 12, 2008 · The odds are always stacked > against even the smartest contestants on a > TV game show, but the odds against 18-year-old Jamal Malik — the > Mumbai-born "slumdog" of the title — are reeeeally steep. > This > is a kid with no education. He was orphaned at 7, grew up in the > endless shantytowns around India's commercial capital, and now serves > tea as a profession. > None of this has prepared him for the sort of questions they ask on the > Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire: > "In Alexander Dumas' book The Three Musketeers, two of the musketeers are > called Athos and Porthos. What was the name of the third Musketeer?" > The > likelihood that Jamal, or for that matter any friend he might > conceivably phone, will be able to answer such a question is so slim — > and he has done so well at the game — that the show calls in the police > to find out what his scam is. Between his TV appearances, they try to > beat a confession out of him. All he can tell them is, "I knew the > answers." > The camera, though, whooshes back to how he > knew them — life lessons from a childhood almost Dickensian in its > deprivation and excess. There were manipulative adults, brutal > authority figures and a brother who went as wrong as Jamal went right. > Also > wild good times and a girl named Latika, to whom Jamal has been > devoted, and whom he's been trying to rescue from various calamities > since he was 7 years old. > It would be hard to overstate how gloriously frenetic Slumdog Millionaire > gets as its story leaps from fistfights atop luxury high-rises to the > harrowing anti-Muslim riots that kill Jamal's mother to the playfully > raucous tourist scams he and his brother run at the Taj Mahal. > The film was shot not on sets like some Bollywood romance, but in the real, > teeming, boisterous Mumbai. It has a cleverly intricate screenplay by the > writer of The Full Monty and direction by Trainspotting's > Danny Boyle, who almost seems to be remaking that earlier movie, only > with lots more romance and a plot hopped up on subcontinental steroids. > Young Dev Patel, who plays Jamal, races through eye-popping, > music-fueled action sequences like some latter-day D'Artagnan, always > intent — even when he's appearing on TV — on finding and rescuing the > love of his life, who forever seems to be just out of reach. > Romantic, action-packed and always held together by an intriguing social > conscience, Slumdog Millionaire is a rapturous crowd pleaser. I realize it's > also a tad foreign to be > mainstream movie fare in America — but if there's any justice, it's > going to be a huge hit. > Ours is, after all, an age when cross-cultural impulses inflect everything > from music to presidential elections. And Slumdog could hardly be more > cross-cultural: a romantic adventure set in India, > financed in Europe, made by English filmmakers, featuring Muslim > characters speaking Hindi, with a climax hinging on the answer to a > question about a French novel. And it's a blast. (Recommended) > > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96876187 > > >
