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Slumdog Millionaire

June 04, 2023

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup. It narrates the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai.[6] Starring Dev Patel in his film debut as Jamal, and filmed in India, the film was directed by Danny Boyle,[7] written by Simon Beaufoy, and produced by Christian Colson, with Loveleen Tandan credited as co-director.[8] As a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, an Indian-Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Jamal surprises everyone by being able to answer every question correctly, winning ₹2 crore ($460,000). Accused of cheating, Jamal recounts his life story to the police, illustrating how he is able to answer each question correctly.

Slumdog Millionaire
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDanny Boyle
Loveleen Tandan (co-director)
Screenplay bySimon Beaufoy
Based onQ & A
by Vikas Swarup
Produced byChristian Colson
Starring
CinematographyAnthony Dod Mantle
Edited byChris Dickens
Music byA. R. Rahman
Production
companies
Distributed byPathé Distribution[iii]
Release dates
  • 30 August 2008 (2008-08-30) (Telluride)
  • 25 December 2008 (2008-12-25) (United States)
  • 9 January 2009 (2009-01-09) (United Kingdom)
Running time
120 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom[2][3][4]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15 million[5]
Box office$378.4 million[5]

After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival,[9] Slumdog Millionaire had a nationwide release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, in India on 23 January 2009,[10] where it saw the majority of its original success and notoriety. In the United States, the film was released on December 25 2008. Regarded as a sleeper hit, Slumdog Millionaire was widely acclaimed, being praised for its plot, soundtrack, cinematography, editing, direction, and performances (especially Patel's). It was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight—the most for any 2008 film—including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Film, five Critics' Choice Awards and four Golden Globes.

Plot

In 2006, eighteen-year-old Jamal Malik, an Indian Muslim from the Juhu slum of Mumbai, is a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati. Before answering the final ₹20 million question, he is detained and tortured by the police, who suspect him of cheating. Through a series of flashbacks, Jamal recounts the incidents in his life that provided him with each answer.

At five years old, Jamal obtains the autograph of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan after jumping into a cesspit. Jamal's elder brother Salim later sells the autograph. Their mother is killed during the Bombay riots. While fleeing the riot, the brothers meet Latika, a girl from their slum. Salim is reluctant to take her in, but Jamal suggests that she could be their "third musketeer", a reference to the Alexandre Dumas novel The Three Musketeers which the brothers had learned about in school. The brothers refer to themselves as Athos and Porthos but do not know the third musketeer's name.

The three children are found by Maman—a gangster who trains street children to become beggars. After learning that Maman is blinding the children to make them more effective beggars, Salim escapes with Jamal and Latika. The brothers successfully board a moving train, but Latika is unable to keep up. Salim grabs her hand but purposefully lets go, leaving her to be recaptured by Maman. For the next few years, Salim and Jamal travel on top of trains, making a living by selling goods, pickpocketing, washing dishes, and pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal. At Jamal's insistence, they return to Mumbai to find Latika and discover that Maman is raising her to be a prostitute. The brothers rescue her, Salim shooting Maman dead. Salim gets a job with Javed—a rival crime lord. In their room, Salim orders Jamal to leave him alone with Latika, presumably to sexually assault her. When Jamal refuses, Salim draws a gun on him, and Latika persuades Jamal to leave.

Years later, Jamal, now working as a chaiwala in a call centre, learns that Salim is a high-ranking lieutenant in Javed's crime organisation. Jamal confronts Salim, who pleads for forgiveness. Jamal then sneaks into Javed's residence and reunites with Latika. Although he professes his love for her, she tells him to forget her. Despite the refusal, Jamal promises that he will wait for her every day at five o'clock at Victoria Terminus. Attempting to meet him there, Latika is captured by Javed's men, led by Salim. They scar her face while driving away. Jamal loses contact with Latika and in a final attempt to reach her, he becomes a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, knowing she watches the show.

Jamal is an extremely successful player and becomes popular across India, much to the dismay of the show's host, Prem Kumar. Kumar attempts to trick Jamal by feeding him the wrong answer to the penultimate question. However, Jamal answers correctly, raising suspicion that he is cheating.

When the episode ends, Jamal is arrested. After an initial beating, the police inspector listens to his explanation of how he knew each answer. The officer believes Jamal and allows him to return to the show. Latika sees that Jamal was arrested on the news. Feeling guilty about his past behaviour, Salim gives Latika his phone and car keys, asking her to forgive him. After Latika leaves, Salim fills a bathtub with money and sits in it, waiting for Javed to realise what happened.

For the final question, Jamal is asked the name of the third musketeer. Jamal admits to not knowing the answer and uses his "Phone-A-Friend" lifeline to call Salim because it is the only phone number he knows. Latika answers and tells Jamal that she is safe, but does not know the answer. Javed hears Latika on the show and realises that Salim betrayed him. He and his men break down the bathroom door. Salim kills Javed before being shot and killed by the gang. Relieved about Latika, Jamal guesses and picks the first answer, Aramis. He is correct and wins the grand prize. Jamal and Latika meet on the platform at the train station and kiss.

Cast

Production

 
Danny Boyle directed the film

Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy wrote Slumdog Millionaire based on the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-nominated novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup.[16] To hone the script, Beaufoy made three research trips to India and interviewed street children, finding himself impressed with their attitudes. The screenwriter said of his goal for the script: "I wanted to get (across) the sense of this huge amount of fun, laughter, chat, and sense of community that is in these slums. What you pick up on is this mass of energy."

By the summer of 2006, British production companies Celador Films and Film4 Productions invited director Danny Boyle to read the script of Slumdog Millionaire. Boyle hesitated, since he was not interested in making a film about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which was produced by Celador.[12] Then Boyle learned that the screenwriter was Beaufoy, who had written The Full Monty (1997), one of the director's favourite British films, and decided to revisit the script.[17] Boyle was impressed by how Beaufoy wove the multiple storylines from Swarup's book into one narrative, and the director decided to commit to the project. The film was projected to cost $15 million, so Celador sought a US film distributor to share costs. Warner Independent Pictures gave $5 million and got the rights to the film.[12]

Gail Stevens came on board to oversee casting globally. Stevens had worked with Boyle throughout his career and was well known for discovering new talent. Meredith Tucker was appointed to cast out of the US. The film-makers then travelled to Mumbai in September 2007 with a partial crew and began hiring local cast and crew for production in Karjat. Originally appointed as one of the five casting directors in India, Loveleen Tandan has stated, "I suggested to Danny and Simon Beaufoy, the writer of Slumdog, that it was important to do some of it in Hindi to bring the film alive [...] They asked me to pen the Hindi dialogues which I, of course, instantly agreed to do. And as we drew closer to the shoot date, Danny asked me to step in as the co-director."[18] Boyle then decided to translate nearly a third of the film's English dialogue into Hindi. The director fibbed to Warner Independent's president that he wanted 10% of the dialogue in Hindi, and she approved the change.[19] Filming locations included shooting in Mumbai's megaslum and in shantytown parts of Juhu, so film-makers controlled the crowds by befriending onlookers.[12] Filming began on 5 November 2007.[13]

In addition to Swarup's original novel Q & A, the film was also inspired by Indian cinema.[20] Tandan has referred to Slumdog Millionaire as a homage to Hindi cinema, noting that "Simon Beaufoy studied Salim–Javed's kind of cinema minutely."[21] Boyle has cited the influence of several Bollywood films set in Mumbai.[i] Deewaar (1975), which Boyle described as being "absolutely key to Indian cinema", is a crime film written by Salim-Javed based on the Bombay gangster Haji Mastan, portrayed by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, whose autograph Jamal seeks at the beginning of Slumdog Millionaire.[20] Anil Kapoor noted that some scenes of the film "are like Deewaar, the story of two brothers of whom one is completely after money while the younger one is honest and not interested in money."[22] Slumdog Millionaire has a similar narrative structure to Deewaar.[23] Satya (1998), written by Saurabh Shukla (who plays Constable Srinivas in Slumdog Millionaire), and Company (2002), based on the D-Company, both offered "slick, often mesmerising portrayals of the Mumbai underworld" and displayed realistic "brutality and urban violence." Boyle has also stated that the chase in one of the opening scenes of Slumdog Millionaire was based on a "12-minute police chase through the crowded Dharavi slum" in Black Friday (2007), adapted from Hussein Zaidi's book of the same name about the 1993 Bombay bombings.[20][24][25][26]

Boyle has cited other Indian films as influences in later interviews.[ii][27] The rags-to-riches, underdog theme was also a recurring theme in classic Bollywood movies from the 1950s through to the 1980s, when "India worked to lift itself from hunger and poverty."[28] Other classic Bollywood tropes in the film include "the fantasy sequences" and the montage sequence where "the brothers jump off a train and suddenly they are seven years older".[27]

The producer's first choice for the role of Prem Kumar was Shahrukh Khan,[29] an established Bollywood star and host of the 2007 series of Kaun Banega Crorepati (the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?). However, Khan turned down the role, concerned that he did not want to give his audience the impression that the real show was a fraud by playing a fraudulent host in the movie.[30] Despite the subsequent success of the film, Khan has stated that he does not regret turning the role down,[29] and has been a vociferous supporter of the film to its critics.[31] Paul Smith, the executive producer of Slumdog Millionaire and the chairman of Celador Films, previously owned the international rights to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?[32]

The cinematography was handled by Anthony Dod Mantle, using mainly digital cinematography rather than traditional film cinematography. It was shot on a digital camera, the Silicon Imaging SI-2K video camera, in 2K resolution digital video. It was the first film to take full advantage of the SI-2K digital camera.[33]

Release

Theatrical

In August 2007, Warner Independent Pictures acquired the North American rights and Pathé the international rights to distribute Slumdog Millionaire theatrically.[13] However, in May 2008, Warner Independent Pictures was shut down, with all of its projects being transferred to Warner Bros., its parent studio. Warner Bros. doubted the commercial prospects of Slumdog Millionaire and suggested that it would go straight to DVD without a US theatrical release.[24] In August 2008, the studio began searching for buyers for various productions, to relieve its overload of end-of-the-year films.[34] Halfway through the month, Warner Bros. entered into a pact with Fox Searchlight Pictures to share distribution of the film, with Fox Searchlight buying 50% of Warner Bros.'s interest in the movie and handling US distribution.[35]

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on 31 March 2009. The film opened at No. 2 in the DVD sales chart, making $14.16m off 842,000 DVD units.[36] As of 12 November 2009, an estimated 1,964,962 DVD units have been sold, translating to $31.32m in revenue. This figure does not include Blu-ray sales/DVD rentals.[36] It had previously been announced that 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment would be starting a new marketing program with two versions of each release: a stripped-down minimal version for the rental market, and a traditional full version with "bonus extra" features, such as commentary and "making of" material for the retail market. The release production was mixed up; some full versions were shipped in rental cases, and some retail versions were missing the extras despite their being listed on the outside of the box. Public apologies were issued by Fox and Amazon.[37]

In the United Kingdom, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 1 June 2009. It was 2009's fifth best-selling film on home video retail in the United Kingdom, third best-selling British film, and overall best-selling British independent film in the UK. It was also the year's top online video rental in the UK.[38] On UK television, it was watched by 5.2 million viewers on Channel 4 in 2010, making it the year's fifth most-watched film on UK television, the fourth most-watched British film, and the year's most-watched Channel 4 film.[39]

Reception

Box office

Following its success at the 81st Academy Awards, the film topped the worldwide box office (barring North America), grossing $16 million from 34 markets in the week following the Academy Awards.[40] Worldwide, the film has currently grossed over $377.9 million,[5] becoming Fox Searchlight Pictures's highest-grossing film ever (surpassing Juno). It was the year's second highest-grossing British film worldwide (below Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and the most successful British independent film of all time.[38]

North America

Slumdog Millionaire was first shown at the Telluride Film Festival on 30 August 2008, where it was positively received by audiences, generating "strong buzz".[41] The film also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2008, where it was "the first widely acknowledged popular success" of the festival,[42] winning the People's Choice Award.[43] Slumdog Millionaire debuted with a limited North American release on 12 November 2008, followed by a nationwide release in the United States on 23 January 2009.[5]

After debuting on a Wednesday, the film grossed $360,018 in 10 theatres in its first weekend, a strong average of $36,002 per theatre.[44][36] In its second weekend, it expanded to 32 theatres and made $947,795, or an average of $29,619 per theatre, representing a drop of only 18%.[44] In the 10 original theatres of its release, viewership went up 16%, and this is attributed to strong word-of-mouth.[45] The film expanded into wide release on 25 December 2008 at 614 theatres and earned $5,647,007 over the extended Christmas weekend.[5] Following its success at the 81st Academy Awards, the film's takings increased by 43%,[46] the most for any film since Titanic.[47] In the weekend of 27 February to 1 March, the film reached its widest release at 2,943 theatres.[5] The film has grossed over $140 million at the North American box office.[5]

Europe

The film was released in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, and opened at No. 2 at the UK box office.[48] The film reached No. 1 in its second weekend and set a UK box office record, as the film's takings increased by 47%. This is the "biggest ever increase for a UK saturation release," breaking "the record previously held by Billy Elliot's 13%." This record-breaking "ticket surge" in the second weekend came after Slumdog Millionaire won four Golden Globes and received eleven BAFTA nominations. The film grossed £6.1 million in its first eleven days of release in the UK.[49] The takings increased by another 7% the following weekend, bringing the film's gross up to £10.24 million for its first seventeen days in the UK,[50][51] and up to £14.2 million in its third week.[52]

As of 20 February 2009, the film's UK box office gross was £22,973,110, making it "the eighth biggest hit at UK cinemas of the past 12 months."[53] In the week ending 1 March 2009, following its success at the 81st Academy Awards where it won eight Oscars, the film returned to No. 1 at the UK box office,[54] grossing £26 million as of 2 March 2009.[55] As of 17 May 2009, the total UK gross was over £31.6 million.[56] It topped the UK box office for four weeks, more than any other film in 2009 (longer than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which spent three weeks at the top). It was the year's highest-grossing drama film in the UK, and the year's highest-grossing film rated 15 by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The film's UK audience demographic breakdown was 50% male and 50% female, with 80% under 55 and 20% over 55, and 32% in London.[38] It became the highest-grossing British independent film ever at the UK box office, surpassing Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994),[38][39] as well as the 20th highest-grossing British film ever at the UK box office and the highest-grossing domestic British film ever without US studio investment.[39]

The film's success at the Academy Awards led to it seeing large increases in takings elsewhere in Europe the following week. Its biggest single country increase was in Italy, where it was up 556% from the previous week. The takings in France and Spain also increased by 61% and 73% respectively. During the same week, the film debuted in other European countries with successful openings: in Croatia it grossed $170,419 from 10 screens, making it the biggest opening there in the last four months; and in Poland it opened in second place with a gross of $715,677. The film was released in Sweden on 6 March 2009 and in Germany on 19 March 2009.[40] The film has sold a total of 17,807,302 box office tickets in Europe, as of 2020.[57]

India

In India, the premiere of Slumdog Millionaire took place in Mumbai on 22 January 2009 and was attended by major personalities of the Indian film industry, with more than a hundred attending this event.[58] A dubbed Hindi version, Slumdog Crorepati (स्लमडॉग करोड़पति), was also released in India in addition to the original version of the film.[59] The name was changed as Indians are more familiar with Indian numbering, including the crore, than the Western numbering with the million.[60] Originally titled Slumdog Millionaire: Kaun Banega Crorepati, the name was shortened for legal reasons. Loveleen Tandan, who supervised the dubbing, stated, "All the actors from the original English including Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Ankur Vikal dubbed the film. We got a boy from Chembur, Pratik Motwani to dub for the male lead Dev Patel. I didn't want any exaggerated dubbing. I wanted a young unspoilt voice."[61] The film was also dubbed in Tamil as Naanum Kodeeswaran, with Silambarasan dubbing for Patel,[62] while S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Radha Ravi dubbed for Kapoor and Khan respectively.[63]

Fox Searchlight, with Fox Star Studios,[64] released 351 prints of the film across India for its full release there on 23 January 2009.[65] It earned ₹2,35,45,665 (equivalent to ₹50 million or US$630,000 in 2020) in its first week at the Indian box office,[66] or $2.2 million according to Fox Searchlight. Though not as successful as major film releases in India during its first week, this was the highest weekend gross for any Fox film and the third highest for any Western release in the country, trailing only Spider-Man 3 and Casino Royale.[65] In its second week, the film's gross rose to ₹3,04,70,752 (equivalent to ₹65 million or US$820,000 in 2020) at the Indian box office.[66]

A few analysts have offered their opinions about the film's performance at the Indian box office. Trade analyst Komal Nahta commented, "There was a problem with the title itself. Slumdog is not a familiar word for [the] majority [of] Indians." In addition, trade analyst Amod Mehr has stated that with the exception of Anil Kapoor, the film lacks recognisable stars and that "the film... is not ideally suited for Indian sentiment." A cinema owner commented that "to hear slum boys speaking perfect English doesn't seem right but when they are speaking in Hindi, the film seems much more believable." The dubbed Hindi version, Slumdog Crorepati, did better at the box office, and additional copies of that version were released.[67] Following the film's success at the 81st Academy Awards, the film's takings in India increased by 470% the following week, bringing its total up to $6.3 million that week.[40] As of 15 March 2009, Slumdog Crorepati had grossed ₹158,613,802 (equivalent to ₹340 million or US$4.2 million in 2020) at the Indian box office.[citation needed]

Asia-Pacific

The film's success at the Academy Awards led to it seeing large increases in takings in the Asia-Pacific region. In Australia, the takings increased by 53%, bringing the film up to second place there.[40] In Hong Kong, the film debuted taking $1 million in its opening weekend, making it the second biggest opening of the year there.[40] The film was released in Japan on 18 April 2009, South Korea on 19 March 2009, China on 26 March 2009, Vietnam on 10 April 2009,[40] and 11 April 2009 in the Philippines.

In particular, the film was a major success in East Asia. In the People's Republic of China, the film grossed $2.2 million in its opening weekend (27–29 March). In Japan, the film grossed $12 million, the most the film has grossed in any Asian country.[68]

Accolades

Main article: List of accolades received by Slumdog Millionaire
Academy Awards record
1. Best Picture, Christian Colson
2. Best Director, Danny Boyle
3. Best Adapted Screenplay, Simon Beaufoy
4. Best Cinematography, Anthony Dod Mantle
5. Best Film Editing, Chris Dickens
6. Best Original Score, A. R. Rahman
7. Best Original Song – "Jai Ho", music by A. R. Rahman, lyric by Gulzar (lyricist)
8. Best Sound Mixing, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, and Ian Tapp
BAFTA Awards record
1. Best Film, Christian Colson
2. Best Director, Danny Boyle
3. Best Adapted Screenplay, Simon Beaufoy
4. Best Cinematography, Anthony Dod Mantle
5. Best Film Music, A. R. Rahman
6. Best Editing, Chris Dickens
7. Best Sound, Glenn Freemantle, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pyke, Tom Sayers, Ian Tapp
Golden Globe Awards record
1. Best Picture – Drama
2. Best Director, Danny Boyle
3. Best Screenplay, Simon Beaufoy
4. Best Original Score, A. R. Rahman
Goya Awards (Spain)
1. Best European Film

Slumdog Millionaire was critically acclaimed and named in the top ten lists of various newspapers.[69] On 22 February 2009, the film won eight out of ten Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including the Best Picture and Best Director.[70] It is the fifteenth film ever to win at least eight Academy Awards[71] and the eleventh Best Picture Oscar winner without a single acting nomination and was the last film to do so until Parasite in 2019.[72] At the same time, Taare Zameen Par (Like Stars on Earth), India's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, failed to make the short list of nominations and was frequently compared with Slumdog Millionaire in the Indian media.[73][74][75][76]

It was also the first film shot using digital cinematography to win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, which was given to Anthony Dod Mantle.[33] The film also won seven of the eleven BAFTA Awards for which it was nominated, including Best Film; all four of the Golden Globe Awards for which it was nominated, including Best Drama Film; and five of the six Critics' Choice Awards for which it was nominated. The title sequence was nominated at the 2009 Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival in the Broadcast Design Award category in competition with the Match of the Day Euro 2008 titles by Aardman and two projects by Agenda Collective.

In 2010, the Independent Film & Television Alliance selected the film as one of the 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the last 30 years.[77]

Reactions from outside India

 
The Slumdog Millionaire team at the 81st Academy Awards in the US

Outside of India, Slumdog Millionaire was met with critical acclaim. The film holds a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 289 reviews, with an average score of 8.40/10. The consensus reads, "Visually dazzling and emotionally resonant, Slumdog Millionaire is a film that's both entertaining and powerful."[78] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 86 out of 100, based on 36 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[79] Movie City News shows that the film appeared in 123 different top ten lists, out of 286 different critics lists surveyed, the 4th most mentions on a top ten list of any film released in 2008.[80]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars, calling it "a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating."[81] Wall Street Journal critic Joe Morgenstern refers to Slumdog Millionaire as, "the film world's first globalised masterpiece."[82] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post argues that, "this modern-day 'rags-to-rajah' fable won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, and it's easy to see why. With its timely setting of a swiftly globalising India and, more specifically, the country's own version of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire TV show, combined with timeless melodrama and a hardworking orphan who withstands all manner of setbacks, Slumdog Millionaire plays like Charles Dickens for the 21st century."[83] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times describes the film as "a Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way" and "a story of star-crossed romance that the original Warner brothers would have embraced, shamelessly pulling out stops that you wouldn't think anyone would have the nerve to attempt any more."[84]

Anthony Lane of the New Yorker stated, "There is a mismatch here. Boyle and his team, headed by the director of photography, Anthony Dod Mantle, clearly believe that a city like Mumbai, with its shifting skyline and a population of more than fifteen million, is as ripe for storytelling as Dickens's London [...] At the same time, the story they chose is sheer fantasy, not in its glancing details but in its emotional momentum. How else could Boyle get away with assembling his cast for a Bollywood dance number, at a railroad station, over the closing credits? You can either chide the film, at this point, for relinquishing any claim to realism or you can go with the flow—surely the wiser choice."[85] Colm Andrew of the Manx Independent was also full of praise, saying the film "successfully mixes hard-hitting drama with uplifting action and the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire show is an ideal device to revolve events around".[86] Several other reviewers have described Slumdog Millionaire as a Bollywood-style "masala" movie,[87] due to the way the film combines "familiar raw ingredients into a feverish masala"[88] and culminates in "the romantic leads finding each other."[89]

Other critics offered more mixed reviews. For example, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars, stating that "despite the extravagant drama and some demonstrations of the savagery meted out to India's street children, this is a cheerfully undemanding and unreflective film with a vision of India that, if not touristy exactly, is certainly an outsider's view; it depends for its full enjoyment on not being taken too seriously." He also pointed out that the film is co-produced by Celador, who own the rights to the original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and claimed that "it functions as a feature-length product placement for the programme."[4]

A few critics outright panned it. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle states that, "Slumdog Millionaire has a problem in its storytelling. The movie unfolds in a start-and-stop way that kills suspense, leans heavily on flashbacks and robs the movie of most of its velocity. ... [T]he whole construction is tied to a gimmicky narrative strategy that keeps Slumdog Millionaire from really hitting its stride until the last 30 minutes. By then, it's just a little too late."[90] Eric Hynes of IndieWire called it "bombastic", "a noisy, sub-Dickens update on the romantic tramp's tale" and "a goofy picaresque to rival Forrest Gump in its morality and romanticism."[91]

Reactions from India and the Indian diaspora

Main article: Reactions from India and the Indian diaspora to Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire has been a subject of discussion among a variety of people in India and the Indian diaspora. Some film critics have responded positively to the film; others objected to issues such as Jamal's use of British English or the fact that similar films by Indian filmmakers have not received equal recognition. A few notable filmmakers such as Aamir Khan and Priyadarshan have been critical of the film. Author and critic Salman Rushdie argues that it has "a patently ridiculous conceit."[92]

Adoor Gopalakrishnan, one of the most acclaimed film makers in India during the 1980s and 1990s and a five time Best Director winner of the Indian National Film Awards lambasted Slumdog Millionaire, calling it in an interview to NDTV: "A very anti-Indian film. All the bad elements of Bombay's commercial cinema are put together and in a very slick way. And it underlines and endorses what the West thinks about us. It is falsehood built upon falsehood. And at every turn is fabricated. At every turn it is built on falsehood. I was ashamed to see it was being appreciated widely in the west... Fortunately Indians are turning it down."[93]

Academic criticism

See also: Controversial issues surrounding Slumdog Millionaire

The film has been subject to serious academic criticism. Mitu Sengupta (2009 and 2010) raises substantial doubts about both the realism of the film's portrayal of urban poverty in India and whether the film will assist those arguing for the poor. Rather, Sengupta argues the film's "reductive view" of such slums is likely to reinforce negative attitudes to those who live there. The film is therefore likely to support policies that have tended to further dispossess the slum dwellers in terms of material goods, power and dignity. The film, it is also suggested, celebrates characters and places that might be seen as symbolic of Western culture and models of development.[94][95] Ana Cristina Mendes (2010) places Boyle's film in the context of the aestheticising and showcasing of poverty in India for artistic (and commercial) purposes, and proceeds to examine "the modes of circulation of these representations in the field of cultural production, as well as their role in enhancing the processes of ever-increasing consumption of India-related images."[96]

However, there are others who point to the changing urban aspirations and prospects for mobility that can be seen in Indian cities such as Mumbai in which the film is set. The film is seen by D. Parthasarathy (2009) as reflecting a larger context of global cultural flows, which implicates issues of labour, status, ascription-achievement, and poverty in urban India. Parthasarathy (2009) argues for a better understanding of issues of dignity of labour and that the film should be interpreted in a more nuanced way as reflecting the role of market forces and India's new service economy in transforming the caste and status determined opportunity structure in urban India.[97]

Academic criticism has also been extended to the underlying philosophy of the film, with its apparent ends-justify-means message.[98] Many elements of the film, including the apparent redemption of Salim at the end of his life and the film's subjugation of the suffering of peripheral characters to the romantic aspirations of Jamal, are characteristic, say such critics, of a naïve, Providence-based vision of reality.[98]

Soundtrack

Main article: Slumdog Millionaire: Music from the Motion Picture

The Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman, who planned the score for over two months and completed it in two weeks.[99] Danny Boyle has said that he chose Rahman because "not only does he draw on Indian classical music, but he's got R&B and hip hop coming in from America, house music coming in from Europe and this incredible fusion is created."[27] Rahman won the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and won two Academy Awards, one for Best Original Score and one for Best Original Song for "Jai Ho". Rahman had two songs nominated for Best Original Song – the nomination for "O... Saya" was shared with M.I.A., while the win for "Jai Ho" was shared with lyricist Gulzar. The soundtrack was released on M.I.A.'s record label N.E.E.T. On Radio Sargam, film critic Goher Iqbal Punn termed the soundtrack Rahman's "magnum opus" which will acquaint "the entire world" with his artistry.[100]

Notes

See also

References

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Wikiquote has quotations related to Slumdog Millionaire.

June 04, 2023
slumdog, millionaire, 2008, british, drama, film, that, loose, adaptation, novel, 2005, indian, author, vikas, swarup, narrates, story, year, jamal, malik, from, juhu, slums, mumbai, starring, patel, film, debut, jamal, filmed, india, film, directed, danny, bo. Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel Q amp A 2005 by Indian author Vikas Swarup It narrates the story of 18 year old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai 6 Starring Dev Patel in his film debut as Jamal and filmed in India the film was directed by Danny Boyle 7 written by Simon Beaufoy and produced by Christian Colson with Loveleen Tandan credited as co director 8 As a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati an Indian Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Jamal surprises everyone by being able to answer every question correctly winning 2 crore 460 000 Accused of cheating Jamal recounts his life story to the police illustrating how he is able to answer each question correctly Slumdog MillionaireTheatrical release posterDirected byDanny Boyle Loveleen Tandan co director Screenplay bySimon BeaufoyBased onQ amp Aby Vikas SwarupProduced byChristian ColsonStarringDev Patel Freida Pinto Madhur Mittal Anil Kapoor Irrfan KhanCinematographyAnthony Dod MantleEdited byChris DickensMusic byA R RahmanProductioncompaniesCelador Films Film4 ProductionsDistributed byPathe Distribution iii Release dates30 August 2008 2008 08 30 Telluride 25 December 2008 2008 12 25 United States 9 January 2009 2009 01 09 United Kingdom Running time120 minutes 1 CountryUnited Kingdom 2 3 4 LanguageEnglishBudget 15 million 5 Box office 378 4 million 5 After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival 9 Slumdog Millionaire had a nationwide release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009 in India on 23 January 2009 10 where it saw the majority of its original success and notoriety In the United States the film was released on December 25 2008 Regarded as a sleeper hit Slumdog Millionaire was widely acclaimed being praised for its plot soundtrack cinematography editing direction and performances especially Patel s It was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight the most for any 2008 film including Best Picture Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay It won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Film five Critics Choice Awards and four Golden Globes Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Release 4 1 Theatrical 4 2 Home media 5 Reception 5 1 Box office 5 1 1 North America 5 1 2 Europe 5 1 3 India 5 1 4 Asia Pacific 5 2 Accolades 5 3 Reactions from outside India 5 4 Reactions from India and the Indian diaspora 5 5 Academic criticism 6 Soundtrack 7 Notes 8 See also 9 References 10 External linksPlot EditIn 2006 eighteen year old Jamal Malik an Indian Muslim from the Juhu slum of Mumbai is a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati Before answering the final 20 million question he is detained and tortured by the police who suspect him of cheating Through a series of flashbacks Jamal recounts the incidents in his life that provided him with each answer At five years old Jamal obtains the autograph of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan after jumping into a cesspit Jamal s elder brother Salim later sells the autograph Their mother is killed during the Bombay riots While fleeing the riot the brothers meet Latika a girl from their slum Salim is reluctant to take her in but Jamal suggests that she could be their third musketeer a reference to the Alexandre Dumas novel The Three Musketeers which the brothers had learned about in school The brothers refer to themselves as Athos and Porthos but do not know the third musketeer s name The three children are found by Maman a gangster who trains street children to become beggars After learning that Maman is blinding the children to make them more effective beggars Salim escapes with Jamal and Latika The brothers successfully board a moving train but Latika is unable to keep up Salim grabs her hand but purposefully lets go leaving her to be recaptured by Maman For the next few years Salim and Jamal travel on top of trains making a living by selling goods pickpocketing washing dishes and pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal At Jamal s insistence they return to Mumbai to find Latika and discover that Maman is raising her to be a prostitute The brothers rescue her Salim shooting Maman dead Salim gets a job with Javed a rival crime lord In their room Salim orders Jamal to leave him alone with Latika presumably to sexually assault her When Jamal refuses Salim draws a gun on him and Latika persuades Jamal to leave Years later Jamal now working as a chaiwala in a call centre learns that Salim is a high ranking lieutenant in Javed s crime organisation Jamal confronts Salim who pleads for forgiveness Jamal then sneaks into Javed s residence and reunites with Latika Although he professes his love for her she tells him to forget her Despite the refusal Jamal promises that he will wait for her every day at five o clock at Victoria Terminus Attempting to meet him there Latika is captured by Javed s men led by Salim They scar her face while driving away Jamal loses contact with Latika and in a final attempt to reach her he becomes a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati knowing she watches the show Jamal is an extremely successful player and becomes popular across India much to the dismay of the show s host Prem Kumar Kumar attempts to trick Jamal by feeding him the wrong answer to the penultimate question However Jamal answers correctly raising suspicion that he is cheating When the episode ends Jamal is arrested After an initial beating the police inspector listens to his explanation of how he knew each answer The officer believes Jamal and allows him to return to the show Latika sees that Jamal was arrested on the news Feeling guilty about his past behaviour Salim gives Latika his phone and car keys asking her to forgive him After Latika leaves Salim fills a bathtub with money and sits in it waiting for Javed to realise what happened For the final question Jamal is asked the name of the third musketeer Jamal admits to not knowing the answer and uses his Phone A Friend lifeline to call Salim because it is the only phone number he knows Latika answers and tells Jamal that she is safe but does not know the answer Javed hears Latika on the show and realises that Salim betrayed him He and his men break down the bathroom door Salim kills Javed before being shot and killed by the gang Relieved about Latika Jamal guesses and picks the first answer Aramis He is correct and wins the grand prize Jamal and Latika meet on the platform at the train station and kiss Cast EditDev Patel as Jamal Malik a boy born and raised in the poverty of Bombay Mumbai 11 Boyle considered hundreds of young male actors and he found that Indian film leads were generally strong handsome hero types Boyle s daughter pointed Dev Patel out from his role in the British television ensemble drama Skins 12 13 Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as youngest Jamal Tanay Chheda as middle Jamal Freida Pinto as Latika a girl from the streets who joins Jamal and Salim then disappears Jamal spends years hunting for her Pinto was an Indian model who had not starred in a feature film before 12 Regarding the one of a kind scarf she wears designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb says I wanted to bookend the journey to tie her childhood yellow dress to her final look 14 Rubina Ali as youngest Latika Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar as middle Latika Madhur Mittal as Salim Malik Jamal s elder brother Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as youngest Salim Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala as middle Salim Anil Kapoor as Prem Kumar the game show host Boyle initially wanted Indian actor Shahrukh Khan to play the role 15 Khan had hosted the 2007 series of Kaun Banega Crorepati Kapoor has also starred as a guest on the show with Amitabh Bachchan and won Rs 5 000 000 Irrfan Khan as Police Inspector Saurabh Shukla as Police Constable Srinivas Mahesh Manjrekar as Javed Khan the crime boss Ankur Vikal as Maman the rival crime boss and child kidnapper Rajendranath Zutshi as Millionaire show producer Sanchita Choudhary as Jamal s and Salim s mother Mia Drake Inderbitzin as Adele an American tourist Siddhesh Patil as Arvind blind beggar Shruti Seth as Call center instructor Arfi Lamba as Bardi Anjum Sharma as one of the Call center operatorsProduction Edit Danny Boyle directed the film Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy wrote Slumdog Millionaire based on the Boeke Prize winning and Commonwealth Writers Prize nominated novel Q amp A by Vikas Swarup 16 To hone the script Beaufoy made three research trips to India and interviewed street children finding himself impressed with their attitudes The screenwriter said of his goal for the script I wanted to get across the sense of this huge amount of fun laughter chat and sense of community that is in these slums What you pick up on is this mass of energy By the summer of 2006 British production companies Celador Films and Film4 Productions invited director Danny Boyle to read the script of Slumdog Millionaire Boyle hesitated since he was not interested in making a film about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire which was produced by Celador 12 Then Boyle learned that the screenwriter was Beaufoy who had written The Full Monty 1997 one of the director s favourite British films and decided to revisit the script 17 Boyle was impressed by how Beaufoy wove the multiple storylines from Swarup s book into one narrative and the director decided to commit to the project The film was projected to cost 15 million so Celador sought a US film distributor to share costs Warner Independent Pictures gave 5 million and got the rights to the film 12 Gail Stevens came on board to oversee casting globally Stevens had worked with Boyle throughout his career and was well known for discovering new talent Meredith Tucker was appointed to cast out of the US The film makers then travelled to Mumbai in September 2007 with a partial crew and began hiring local cast and crew for production in Karjat Originally appointed as one of the five casting directors in India Loveleen Tandan has stated I suggested to Danny and Simon Beaufoy the writer of Slumdog that it was important to do some of it in Hindi to bring the film alive They asked me to pen the Hindi dialogues which I of course instantly agreed to do And as we drew closer to the shoot date Danny asked me to step in as the co director 18 Boyle then decided to translate nearly a third of the film s English dialogue into Hindi The director fibbed to Warner Independent s president that he wanted 10 of the dialogue in Hindi and she approved the change 19 Filming locations included shooting in Mumbai s megaslum and in shantytown parts of Juhu so film makers controlled the crowds by befriending onlookers 12 Filming began on 5 November 2007 13 In addition to Swarup s original novel Q amp A the film was also inspired by Indian cinema 20 Tandan has referred to Slumdog Millionaire as a homage to Hindi cinema noting that Simon Beaufoy studied Salim Javed s kind of cinema minutely 21 Boyle has cited the influence of several Bollywood films set in Mumbai i Deewaar 1975 which Boyle described as being absolutely key to Indian cinema is a crime film written by Salim Javed based on the Bombay gangster Haji Mastan portrayed by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan whose autograph Jamal seeks at the beginning of Slumdog Millionaire 20 Anil Kapoor noted that some scenes of the film are like Deewaar the story of two brothers of whom one is completely after money while the younger one is honest and not interested in money 22 Slumdog Millionaire has a similar narrative structure to Deewaar 23 Satya 1998 written by Saurabh Shukla who plays Constable Srinivas in Slumdog Millionaire and Company 2002 based on the D Company both offered slick often mesmerising portrayals of the Mumbai underworld and displayed realistic brutality and urban violence Boyle has also stated that the chase in one of the opening scenes of Slumdog Millionaire was based on a 12 minute police chase through the crowded Dharavi slum in Black Friday 2007 adapted from Hussein Zaidi s book of the same name about the 1993 Bombay bombings 20 24 25 26 Boyle has cited other Indian films as influences in later interviews ii 27 The rags to riches underdog theme was also a recurring theme in classic Bollywood movies from the 1950s through to the 1980s when India worked to lift itself from hunger and poverty 28 Other classic Bollywood tropes in the film include the fantasy sequences and the montage sequence where the brothers jump off a train and suddenly they are seven years older 27 The producer s first choice for the role of Prem Kumar was Shahrukh Khan 29 an established Bollywood star and host of the 2007 series of Kaun Banega Crorepati the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire However Khan turned down the role concerned that he did not want to give his audience the impression that the real show was a fraud by playing a fraudulent host in the movie 30 Despite the subsequent success of the film Khan has stated that he does not regret turning the role down 29 and has been a vociferous supporter of the film to its critics 31 Paul Smith the executive producer of Slumdog Millionaire and the chairman of Celador Films previously owned the international rights to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 32 The cinematography was handled by Anthony Dod Mantle using mainly digital cinematography rather than traditional film cinematography It was shot on a digital camera the Silicon Imaging SI 2K video camera in 2K resolution digital video It was the first film to take full advantage of the SI 2K digital camera 33 Release EditTheatrical Edit In August 2007 Warner Independent Pictures acquired the North American rights and Pathe the international rights to distribute Slumdog Millionaire theatrically 13 However in May 2008 Warner Independent Pictures was shut down with all of its projects being transferred to Warner Bros its parent studio Warner Bros doubted the commercial prospects of Slumdog Millionaire and suggested that it would go straight to DVD without a US theatrical release 24 In August 2008 the studio began searching for buyers for various productions to relieve its overload of end of the year films 34 Halfway through the month Warner Bros entered into a pact with Fox Searchlight Pictures to share distribution of the film with Fox Searchlight buying 50 of Warner Bros s interest in the movie and handling US distribution 35 Home media Edit The film was released on DVD and Blu ray in the United States on 31 March 2009 The film opened at No 2 in the DVD sales chart making 14 16m off 842 000 DVD units 36 As of 12 November 2009 an estimated 1 964 962 DVD units have been sold translating to 31 32m in revenue This figure does not include Blu ray sales DVD rentals 36 It had previously been announced that 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment would be starting a new marketing program with two versions of each release a stripped down minimal version for the rental market and a traditional full version with bonus extra features such as commentary and making of material for the retail market The release production was mixed up some full versions were shipped in rental cases and some retail versions were missing the extras despite their being listed on the outside of the box Public apologies were issued by Fox and Amazon 37 In the United Kingdom the film was released on DVD and Blu ray on 1 June 2009 It was 2009 s fifth best selling film on home video retail in the United Kingdom third best selling British film and overall best selling British independent film in the UK It was also the year s top online video rental in the UK 38 On UK television it was watched by 5 2 million viewers on Channel 4 in 2010 making it the year s fifth most watched film on UK television the fourth most watched British film and the year s most watched Channel 4 film 39 Reception EditBox office Edit Following its success at the 81st Academy Awards the film topped the worldwide box office barring North America grossing 16 million from 34 markets in the week following the Academy Awards 40 Worldwide the film has currently grossed over 377 9 million 5 becoming Fox Searchlight Pictures s highest grossing film ever surpassing Juno It was the year s second highest grossing British film worldwide below Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and the most successful British independent film of all time 38 North America Edit Stars Dev Patel and Freida Pinto at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival Slumdog Millionaire was first shown at the Telluride Film Festival on 30 August 2008 where it was positively received by audiences generating strong buzz 41 The film also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2008 where it was the first widely acknowledged popular success of the festival 42 winning the People s Choice Award 43 Slumdog Millionaire debuted with a limited North American release on 12 November 2008 followed by a nationwide release in the United States on 23 January 2009 5 After debuting on a Wednesday the film grossed 360 018 in 10 theatres in its first weekend a strong average of 36 002 per theatre 44 36 In its second weekend it expanded to 32 theatres and made 947 795 or an average of 29 619 per theatre representing a drop of only 18 44 In the 10 original theatres of its release viewership went up 16 and this is attributed to strong word of mouth 45 The film expanded into wide release on 25 December 2008 at 614 theatres and earned 5 647 007 over the extended Christmas weekend 5 Following its success at the 81st Academy Awards the film s takings increased by 43 46 the most for any film since Titanic 47 In the weekend of 27 February to 1 March the film reached its widest release at 2 943 theatres 5 The film has grossed over 140 million at the North American box office 5 Europe Edit The film was released in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009 and opened at No 2 at the UK box office 48 The film reached No 1 in its second weekend and set a UK box office record as the film s takings increased by 47 This is the biggest ever increase for a UK saturation release breaking the record previously held by Billy Elliot s 13 This record breaking ticket surge in the second weekend came after Slumdog Millionaire won four Golden Globes and received eleven BAFTA nominations The film grossed 6 1 million in its first eleven days of release in the UK 49 The takings increased by another 7 the following weekend bringing the film s gross up to 10 24 million for its first seventeen days in the UK 50 51 and up to 14 2 million in its third week 52 As of 20 February 2009 the film s UK box office gross was 22 973 110 making it the eighth biggest hit at UK cinemas of the past 12 months 53 In the week ending 1 March 2009 following its success at the 81st Academy Awards where it won eight Oscars the film returned to No 1 at the UK box office 54 grossing 26 million as of 2 March 2009 55 As of 17 May 2009 the total UK gross was over 31 6 million 56 It topped the UK box office for four weeks more than any other film in 2009 longer than Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince which spent three weeks at the top It was the year s highest grossing drama film in the UK and the year s highest grossing film rated 15 by the British Board of Film Classification BBFC The film s UK audience demographic breakdown was 50 male and 50 female with 80 under 55 and 20 over 55 and 32 in London 38 It became the highest grossing British independent film ever at the UK box office surpassing Four Weddings and a Funeral 1994 38 39 as well as the 20th highest grossing British film ever at the UK box office and the highest grossing domestic British film ever without US studio investment 39 The film s success at the Academy Awards led to it seeing large increases in takings elsewhere in Europe the following week Its biggest single country increase was in Italy where it was up 556 from the previous week The takings in France and Spain also increased by 61 and 73 respectively During the same week the film debuted in other European countries with successful openings in Croatia it grossed 170 419 from 10 screens making it the biggest opening there in the last four months and in Poland it opened in second place with a gross of 715 677 The film was released in Sweden on 6 March 2009 and in Germany on 19 March 2009 40 The film has sold a total of 17 807 302 box office tickets in Europe as of 2020 update 57 India Edit In India the premiere of Slumdog Millionaire took place in Mumbai on 22 January 2009 and was attended by major personalities of the Indian film industry with more than a hundred attending this event 58 A dubbed Hindi version Slumdog Crorepati स लमड ग कर ड पत was also released in India in addition to the original version of the film 59 The name was changed as Indians are more familiar with Indian numbering including the crore than the Western numbering with the million 60 Originally titled Slumdog Millionaire Kaun Banega Crorepati the name was shortened for legal reasons Loveleen Tandan who supervised the dubbing stated All the actors from the original English including Anil Kapoor Irrfan Khan and Ankur Vikal dubbed the film We got a boy from Chembur Pratik Motwani to dub for the male lead Dev Patel I didn t want any exaggerated dubbing I wanted a young unspoilt voice 61 The film was also dubbed in Tamil as Naanum Kodeeswaran with Silambarasan dubbing for Patel 62 while S P Balasubrahmanyam and Radha Ravi dubbed for Kapoor and Khan respectively 63 Fox Searchlight with Fox Star Studios 64 released 351 prints of the film across India for its full release there on 23 January 2009 65 It earned 2 35 45 665 equivalent to 50 million or US 630 000 in 2020 in its first week at the Indian box office 66 or 2 2 million according to Fox Searchlight Though not as successful as major film releases in India during its first week this was the highest weekend gross for any Fox film and the third highest for any Western release in the country trailing only Spider Man 3 and Casino Royale 65 In its second week the film s gross rose to 3 04 70 752 equivalent to 65 million or US 820 000 in 2020 at the Indian box office 66 A few analysts have offered their opinions about the film s performance at the Indian box office Trade analyst Komal Nahta commented There was a problem with the title itself Slumdog is not a familiar word for the majority of Indians In addition trade analyst Amod Mehr has stated that with the exception of Anil Kapoor the film lacks recognisable stars and that the film is not ideally suited for Indian sentiment A cinema owner commented that to hear slum boys speaking perfect English doesn t seem right but when they are speaking in Hindi the film seems much more believable The dubbed Hindi version Slumdog Crorepati did better at the box office and additional copies of that version were released 67 Following the film s success at the 81st Academy Awards the film s takings in India increased by 470 the following week bringing its total up to 6 3 million that week 40 As of 15 March 2009 Slumdog Crorepati had grossed 158 613 802 equivalent to 340 million or US 4 2 million in 2020 at the Indian box office citation needed Asia Pacific Edit The film s success at the Academy Awards led to it seeing large increases in takings in the Asia Pacific region In Australia the takings increased by 53 bringing the film up to second place there 40 In Hong Kong the film debuted taking 1 million in its opening weekend making it the second biggest opening of the year there 40 The film was released in Japan on 18 April 2009 South Korea on 19 March 2009 China on 26 March 2009 Vietnam on 10 April 2009 40 and 11 April 2009 in the Philippines In particular the film was a major success in East Asia In the People s Republic of China the film grossed 2 2 million in its opening weekend 27 29 March In Japan the film grossed 12 million the most the film has grossed in any Asian country 68 Accolades Edit Main article List of accolades received by Slumdog Millionaire Academy Awards record1 Best Picture Christian Colson2 Best Director Danny Boyle3 Best Adapted Screenplay Simon Beaufoy4 Best Cinematography Anthony Dod Mantle5 Best Film Editing Chris Dickens6 Best Original Score A R Rahman7 Best Original Song Jai Ho music by A R Rahman lyric by Gulzar lyricist 8 Best Sound Mixing Resul Pookutty Richard Pryke and Ian TappBAFTA Awards record1 Best Film Christian Colson2 Best Director Danny Boyle3 Best Adapted Screenplay Simon Beaufoy4 Best Cinematography Anthony Dod Mantle5 Best Film Music A R Rahman6 Best Editing Chris Dickens7 Best Sound Glenn Freemantle Resul Pookutty Richard Pyke Tom Sayers Ian TappGolden Globe Awards record1 Best Picture Drama2 Best Director Danny Boyle3 Best Screenplay Simon Beaufoy4 Best Original Score A R RahmanGoya Awards Spain 1 Best European FilmSlumdog Millionaire was critically acclaimed and named in the top ten lists of various newspapers 69 On 22 February 2009 the film won eight out of ten Academy Awards for which it was nominated including the Best Picture and Best Director 70 It is the fifteenth film ever to win at least eight Academy Awards 71 and the eleventh Best Picture Oscar winner without a single acting nomination and was the last film to do so until Parasite in 2019 72 At the same time Taare Zameen Par Like Stars on Earth India s submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film failed to make the short list of nominations and was frequently compared with Slumdog Millionaire in the Indian media 73 74 75 76 It was also the first film shot using digital cinematography to win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography which was given to Anthony Dod Mantle 33 The film also won seven of the eleven BAFTA Awards for which it was nominated including Best Film all four of the Golden Globe Awards for which it was nominated including Best Drama Film and five of the six Critics Choice Awards for which it was nominated The title sequence was nominated at the 2009 Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival in the Broadcast Design Award category in competition with the Match of the Day Euro 2008 titles by Aardman and two projects by Agenda Collective In 2010 the Independent Film amp Television Alliance selected the film as one of the 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the last 30 years 77 Reactions from outside India Edit The Slumdog Millionaire team at the 81st Academy Awards in the US Outside of India Slumdog Millionaire was met with critical acclaim The film holds a 91 approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 289 reviews with an average score of 8 40 10 The consensus reads Visually dazzling and emotionally resonant Slumdog Millionaire is a film that s both entertaining and powerful 78 On Metacritic the film has an average score of 86 out of 100 based on 36 reviews indicating universal acclaim 79 Movie City News shows that the film appeared in 123 different top ten lists out of 286 different critics lists surveyed the 4th most mentions on a top ten list of any film released in 2008 80 Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars calling it a breathless exciting story heartbreaking and exhilarating 81 Wall Street Journal critic Joe Morgenstern refers to Slumdog Millionaire as the film world s first globalised masterpiece 82 Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post argues that this modern day rags to rajah fable won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year and it s easy to see why With its timely setting of a swiftly globalising India and more specifically the country s own version of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire TV show combined with timeless melodrama and a hardworking orphan who withstands all manner of setbacks Slumdog Millionaire plays like Charles Dickens for the 21st century 83 Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times describes the film as a Hollywood style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra modern way and a story of star crossed romance that the original Warner brothers would have embraced shamelessly pulling out stops that you wouldn t think anyone would have the nerve to attempt any more 84 Anthony Lane of the New Yorker stated There is a mismatch here Boyle and his team headed by the director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle clearly believe that a city like Mumbai with its shifting skyline and a population of more than fifteen million is as ripe for storytelling as Dickens s London At the same time the story they chose is sheer fantasy not in its glancing details but in its emotional momentum How else could Boyle get away with assembling his cast for a Bollywood dance number at a railroad station over the closing credits You can either chide the film at this point for relinquishing any claim to realism or you can go with the flow surely the wiser choice 85 Colm Andrew of the Manx Independent was also full of praise saying the film successfully mixes hard hitting drama with uplifting action and the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire show is an ideal device to revolve events around 86 Several other reviewers have described Slumdog Millionaire as a Bollywood style masala movie 87 due to the way the film combines familiar raw ingredients into a feverish masala 88 and culminates in the romantic leads finding each other 89 Other critics offered more mixed reviews For example Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars stating that despite the extravagant drama and some demonstrations of the savagery meted out to India s street children this is a cheerfully undemanding and unreflective film with a vision of India that if not touristy exactly is certainly an outsider s view it depends for its full enjoyment on not being taken too seriously He also pointed out that the film is co produced by Celador who own the rights to the original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and claimed that it functions as a feature length product placement for the programme 4 A few critics outright panned it Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle states that Slumdog Millionaire has a problem in its storytelling The movie unfolds in a start and stop way that kills suspense leans heavily on flashbacks and robs the movie of most of its velocity T he whole construction is tied to a gimmicky narrative strategy that keeps Slumdog Millionaire from really hitting its stride until the last 30 minutes By then it s just a little too late 90 Eric Hynes of IndieWire called it bombastic a noisy sub Dickens update on the romantic tramp s tale and a goofy picaresque to rival Forrest Gump in its morality and romanticism 91 Reactions from India and the Indian diaspora Edit Main article Reactions from India and the Indian diaspora to Slumdog Millionaire Slumdog Millionaire has been a subject of discussion among a variety of people in India and the Indian diaspora Some film critics have responded positively to the film others objected to issues such as Jamal s use of British English or the fact that similar films by Indian filmmakers have not received equal recognition A few notable filmmakers such as Aamir Khan and Priyadarshan have been critical of the film Author and critic Salman Rushdie argues that it has a patently ridiculous conceit 92 Adoor Gopalakrishnan one of the most acclaimed film makers in India during the 1980s and 1990s and a five time Best Director winner of the Indian National Film Awards lambasted Slumdog Millionaire calling it in an interview to NDTV A very anti Indian film All the bad elements of Bombay s commercial cinema are put together and in a very slick way And it underlines and endorses what the West thinks about us It is falsehood built upon falsehood And at every turn is fabricated At every turn it is built on falsehood I was ashamed to see it was being appreciated widely in the west Fortunately Indians are turning it down 93 Academic criticism Edit See also Controversial issues surrounding Slumdog Millionaire The film has been subject to serious academic criticism Mitu Sengupta 2009 and 2010 raises substantial doubts about both the realism of the film s portrayal of urban poverty in India and whether the film will assist those arguing for the poor Rather Sengupta argues the film s reductive view of such slums is likely to reinforce negative attitudes to those who live there The film is therefore likely to support policies that have tended to further dispossess the slum dwellers in terms of material goods power and dignity The film it is also suggested celebrates characters and places that might be seen as symbolic of Western culture and models of development 94 95 Ana Cristina Mendes 2010 places Boyle s film in the context of the aestheticising and showcasing of poverty in India for artistic and commercial purposes and proceeds to examine the modes of circulation of these representations in the field of cultural production as well as their role in enhancing the processes of ever increasing consumption of India related images 96 However there are others who point to the changing urban aspirations and prospects for mobility that can be seen in Indian cities such as Mumbai in which the film is set The film is seen by D Parthasarathy 2009 as reflecting a larger context of global cultural flows which implicates issues of labour status ascription achievement and poverty in urban India Parthasarathy 2009 argues for a better understanding of issues of dignity of labour and that the film should be interpreted in a more nuanced way as reflecting the role of market forces and India s new service economy in transforming the caste and status determined opportunity structure in urban India 97 Academic criticism has also been extended to the underlying philosophy of the film with its apparent ends justify means message 98 Many elements of the film including the apparent redemption of Salim at the end of his life and the film s subjugation of the suffering of peripheral characters to the romantic aspirations of Jamal are characteristic say such critics of a naive Providence based vision of reality 98 Soundtrack EditMain article Slumdog Millionaire Music from the Motion Picture The Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack was composed by A R Rahman who planned the score for over two months and completed it in two weeks 99 Danny Boyle has said that he chose Rahman because not only does he draw on Indian classical music but he s got R amp B and hip hop coming in from America house music coming in from Europe and this incredible fusion is created 27 Rahman won the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and won two Academy Awards one for Best Original Score and one for Best Original Song for Jai Ho Rahman had two songs nominated for Best Original Song the nomination for O Saya was shared with M I A while the win for Jai Ho was shared with lyricist Gulzar The soundtrack was released on M I A s record label N E E T On Radio Sargam film critic Goher Iqbal Punn termed the soundtrack Rahman s magnum opus which will acquaint the entire world with his artistry 100 Notes Editi Specifically in the Kumar article Boyle referred to Deewaar 1975 by Yash Chopra and Salim Javed Satya 1998 and Company 2002 by Ram Gopal Verma and Black Friday 2007 by Anurag Kashyap ii Some of the other Indian films cited by Boyle as reference points for the film include Satyajit Ray s Pather Panchali 1955 Mira Nair films such as Salaam Bombay 1988 Ashutosh Gowarikar s Lagaan 2001 and Aamir Khan s Taare Zameen Par 2007 iii Fox Searchlight Pictures distributed Slumdog Millionaire theatrically in the United States under a shared distribution agreement with Warner Bros Pictures 35 Pathe themselves distributed the film in its native United Kingdom the studio s native France and through their own distribution division in Switzerland named Monopole Pathe 101 while other independent distributors released the film in other territories 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Slumdog Millionaire 2008 movies ch cinema film amp DVD en Suisse External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to Slumdog Millionaire Slumdog Millionaire at IMDb Slumdog Millionaire at the American Film Institute Catalog Slumdog Millionaire at AllMovie Slumdog Millionaire at Box Office Mojo Slumdog Millionaire at Metacritic Slumdog Millionaire at Rotten Tomatoes Review Essay in Visual Anthropology Virtue Ethics of Boot Polish and Dosti as Compared with Slumdog Millionaire Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Slumdog Millionaire amp oldid 1156531228, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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