This evening I became the last person in the whole wide world to watch Slumdog Millionaire. I know it won three hundred and fity million Oscars and was nominated for two million more, but there was something about the way this film was hyped that made me reluctant to see it. And now I have seen it, and I can’t really make up my mind. It unashamedly describes itself as a feelgood movie and it does, indeed, leave the unjudgemental viewer feeling good. The child actors are wonderful, full of innocent charm. This is Dickens in Mumbai, complete with equivalents of the Artful Dodger and Fagin. But in its determination to make the viewer feel good, I can’t help feel that the film ducks its social responsibilties (Do films have social responsibilities? Discuss). Crushing poverty is depicted as an age of joyful innocence. The slums are being replaced by towers to Mamon and a former slumdog almost regrets their passing. And at the end the Bollywood knob is turned full on; true love will always find a way – in Mumbai Central Station in the rush hour, if needs be. And why don’t we have a feel good dance afterwards, just for fun? If it hadn’t been for all that hype, this might have been a nice little feelgood movie.
You beat me to it, I haven’t seen that movie yet 🙂