Slumdog Millionaire was set and filmed in India in the slums of Mumbai. But ask director Danny Boyle, ‘Is it an Indian film?” The incredible director would come up with the answer that the film is based on Vikas Swarup’s book Q and A, and shot entirely in India, but it is a British film, since the $15 million film was financed in London. But the film’s co-director, as well as casting director Loveleen Tandan, who is an Indian, once declared that ‘It is totally an Indian film.’ 

Interestingly, Boyle, who captured the real picture of Mumbai slums, had never been to India before signing on to direct the screenplay written by Beaufoy. But, Loveleen Tandan had been his moral compass and anchor throughout the project.

“Before I arrived in Mumbai I read Suketu Mehta’s marvelous book ‘The Maximum City’,” Boyle said. “But even then I had to find out a million things about Mumbai. And it was very important that I did not get things wrong.” Loveleen was always there with helpful suggestions and warnings about how some things aren’t looking alright.”
Slumdog was an ultimate experience for its makers. They adopted a rare approach to reach under the skin of Mumbai slums. Tandan says she likes to get as close to reality as possible, and this very intense enthusiasm drove her to the slums of East Bandra, where she found two young children who resembled the protagonists in the story.
 
“I was very keen to get real slum kids, which is why I convinced them (the producers) to do one-third of the scenes in Hindi. I made a scratch tape with real street kids. The team was surprised that Hindi actually made it brighter and more alive,” said Tandan. Two of the child actors were plucked from a desperately poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Mubai. Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, age 10, and Ruboma Ali, 9, were flown to Los Angeles for the ceremony.

Indeed, Boyle realized that they needed to adapt to the freewheeling working style of the Indian crew. Certainly, Slumdog does not feel like a foreign film. Of course, it has a significant touch of Indian music by maestro A.R. Rahman.

Everything about Slumdog is so alluring, which appeals to everyone. Most parts of the film was shot on small digital cameras by the director himself, so that he could capture the environment’s immediacy while enabling the crew to move through neighborhoods with little disruption.

“You’ve got a script you’re going to shoot, but you try and make the decisions on the day,” Boyle said. “It doesn’t always work, but when it does work, that’s the best bit, when you feel something new that you’d never thought of before.”

Slumdog Millionaire takes the audience on a journey into the heart of Indian port city Mumbai. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and eventually won eight, marking the second most Oscar-winning film in this decade. It also won five Critics’ Choice Awards, four Golden Globes, and seven BAFTA Awards.

First nominate true hits. At one time the movies that were good enough to attract top box office got nominated and many times would win. Movies like Titanic, Rain Man, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Ring, Forrest Gump, The Godfather, The graduate, Annie Hall and even Rocky. Having movies that people did not like win does not attract a very large audience. “No Country for Old Men" did just $32 million, the lowest of any winner. That is truly no country for real filmmakers to strive for.

Produce a better show and make it move faster. How would you like to have been stuck in the audience? At least at home you can skip the commercials and get something to drink.

Create more buzz with social media marketing and online content. Let the public have a conversation with “The Academy” and talk about what they like. Yes it will influence them and that is a good thing.

Get some additional stars to fill the seats and participate in the show.

Gerry Grant
Reporter
My Entertainment News

Let’s start with the self indulgent Coen bothers, who cheated the audience out of an ending just because they can. You see, they’re the famous Coen brothers who built up enough legitimate credit with quality films that now they can pull the rug out from under an audience and get away with it. The Coen’s, like a lot of filmmakers, look down on us at the same they court us. And thus, they resent us for not rewarding them every time out. It irks them to have to cater to our tastes. They’re so above us. The only people they care about impressing are their peers. And in Hollywood the new way to impress your peers is to portray America, especially Texas, as a sewer. It’s not a coincidence that “There Will Be Blood” also took place in Texas.

The trend extends to movie reviewing as well. The new way to review a movie is to judge it on how well it was made to the exclusion of how entertaining it was. Again, more peer concern than audience concern. And it saddens and infuriates this lover of the great American art form.

The valueless movie movement reared its ugly head with last year’s winner, “The Departed,” the film that finally won an Oscar for Martin Scorsese, even though it wasn’t nearly as good as some of his previous work, including “Goodfellas” or “Casino.” I can just hear the pitch for “The Departed” – Wouldn’t it be cool if the cops had a mole (called “rat” in this film) in the mob, and the mob had a rat in the police department? So they went about building a story around this premise. But to make it even “cooler” they portrayed the police and the mob as morally equivalent. Everybody is a rat. And in case anyone missed the point, Scorsese, of all people, lowered himself by using the last scene in the movie to show an actual rat crawling across a railing. Since that kind of shameless symbolism is laughed out of film school, the great Martin Scorsese must have really felt he needed to make the rat point. I remember whispering to my date in the theater, “OK, Marty. We get it.” Don’t worry. I don’t talk in movies. I revere them too much, or at least I used to. I rarely succumb to the temptation to say anything, but if I do I very discretely whisper directly into the ear next to me so as not to disturb anyone.

Tony Gilroy, who directed “Michael Clayton,” claimed in the LA Times on Monday that his personal anger over the war in Iraq has contributed to his movie violence. Not noticing the irony, Patrick Goldstein of the Times added that fear of terrorism and other recent events outside the industry are contributing causes for the wave of dark and violent films. So here we have members of the same entertainment industry that started the culture coarsening with hundreds of f-bombs in a single movie and showing Jerry Springer as after school faire (both long before 911 and the war in Iraq) blaming other people and other events for the darkness in their own hearts. And if they’re being honest that other events can actually cause them to create repulsive films it’s even more disturbing.

A final note for all those who don’t know what happened at the non-ending of “No Country for Old Men,” don’t feel alone. And don’t be embarrassed to say so. Nobody understands it. Just check out the blogs to see how confused the rest of the country is. And for your pretentious friends who don’t want to admit that they don’t understand it for fear of appearing unsophisticated, just ask them to explain it to you. They’ll fumble all over the place and finally admit they don’t know either. I never thought I’d say this about a film that won the Oscar for best picture, but unless you want to feel taken in, don’t rent this movie. Maybe they’ll get the message.

Film directors can get away with being older because they get to use their clout to get financing for the movies they want made. Three out of the five nominations for Oscar’s Best Director award that get senior discounts are; Martin Scorese 64, “The Departed” Stephen Frears, 65, “The Queen” and the old guy Clint Eastwood, 76, “Letters From Iwo Jima”. One thing is for certain, these guys know how to make a great movie. Each of them has their films up for Best Picture as well. Strangely missing from the Best Picture picks is “Dreamgirls” with a whole boatload of nominations for other categories. Martin Scorese finaly gets a win for Best Director and Best Picture.

Older men have been perceived as attractive and even sexy when it comes to public opinion. The ladies are starting to be much more proactive instead of just fading away and the public gets the benefits. Helen Mirren has gone for the full effect of being older and sexy. Her recent appearance at the Golden Globe awards in a very revealing and daring dress is just one example. Helen Mirren recently attended a tribute held in her honor ate the Santa Barbara International Film Festival where the organizers screened some of her more exciting nude scenes. She has actually appeared naked in over a dozen films. Hard to imagine her naked as you watch her in “The Queen” in her frumpy clothes and Wellington rubber boots tooling around in an old Range Rover.

“Little Miss Sunshine” nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor represent the two extremes in age. Arkin plays a heroin snorting, foul mouthed porno consuming grandfather to Abigail Breslin as a driven, sweet little beauty queen hopeful.

When film makers do not discriminate based on anything but who is best for the film, and who has the talent to turn in an exceptional performance, the audience gets much better entertainment.

Is Helen Mirren hot? How about Meryl Streep.