25 April,2009 07:37 AM IST | | Bryan Durham
My earliest introduction to Slumdog... came through the youngest Jamal Aayush Khedekar) and Danny Boyle himself in July 2008 when he was close to completing shooting for the well-lauded film.
"It's a cheesy film but also a very optimistic one", said Boyle back then and that was something that stuck with me, when I did catch the film in January this year.
The film itself seemed quite patchy when one saw the final cut and there are several jumps in narrative that leave you with more questions than answers.
The deleted scenes on theu00a0 'Special Features' DVD tied up all the loose ends for me. Soon enough, you begin to appreciate the film much more.
The extended version of the chase sequence at the beginning is far more nuanced. One deleted scene in particular that tells you why Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) was so against the idea of a 'slumdog' winning the show was left out.
For a film that has had so much written about it, having a Making Of... segment simply seems redundant. Quotes like "We don't read scripts in India" by Anil Kapoor had me guffawing even though I've heard that one before.
When Boyle mentions that Simon Beaufoy said it wasn't a true story and neither was it based on one (the actual inspiration is Q&A by Vikas Swarup), Danny simply retorts, "Well, it deserves to be."
In the city of dreams, a dreamer wins big, and he's not the only one. Just one little grouse, though. Very little is spoken about A R Rahman, whose music brings the film alive. In any case, Jai Ho!
Slumdog Millionaire
DIR: Danny Boyle
LABEL: Shemaroo
PRICE: Rs 499
REGION: Free
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