I liked this movie. I really did. It was the right combination of entertaining, eye-opening, funny, romantic – all the ingredients to a great stew. And that’s where things should have ended. But Golden Globes and other awards?
Let’s not kid ourselves. Slumdog is a fairy tale movie woven around a ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’ theme. It’s not high art. You can’t be pretentious about it if you tried. Let’s not get carried away just because the movie industry wants India to be cool. If I was a conspiracy nut I would say that this is a gateway-Bollywood movie- just a primer to open your mind to the idea because if you went straight to an authentic one your head would spin (I recommend ‘Singh is Kinng’).
But honestly, Slumdog isn’t even as important as that. It’s just a nice feel-good movie with a happy ending. Isn’t that enough these days?