Slumdog Millionaire, the Mumbai-based movie nominated for 10 Oscars including best film, has finally opened in India on Friday, as a continuation of its surprise run of success since it won four categories at the Golden Globes, including the prize for best drama. The rags-to-riches tale was directed by British filmmaker Danny Boyle and it received a great release in India as any major Bollywood film.
The movie got the second highest number of Oscar nominations on Thursday, including that of best director for Danny Boyle, best picture and three music nominations for the composer and music director of the movie, A.R. Rahman who has become the first Indian to get three Oscar nominations. The film also received nominations for best adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing and film editing.
“Slumdog Millionaire” has been produced at a budget of seven million pounds. So far, the movie collected six million pounds at the UK box office and 40 million dollars in USA.
Many have predicted that the movie would be a monster hit, both in England and India, and it looks like they were right. Cast members can hardly believe their success and they do not seem to stop hugging about it.
But in spite of all the success in India, the movie also earned some criticism for exploiting poverty. The film features prostitution, religious violence and maimed beggars, which led to a great debate over whether it strikes a blow to India's international reputation. As a result to that, about a dozen residents made a protest against the film on Thursday outside the Mumbai home of Anil Kapoor, one of the film's stars, saying the title of the movie was an insult.
“Slumdog Millionaire” tells the story of an 18-year-old young ma, Jamal Malik, embodied by Dev Patel, who wins the jackpot on Kaun Banega Crorepati television program, the Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? But with each correct answer, though, suspicions rise that he must be cheating, because there is no way a poor uneducated slumdog could know so many things. So Jamal must tell authorities the whole story of his tragic childhood with all its painful memories which explain why he knew the answers to all questions. As a matter of fact, Jamal participates in the game show not for money but because he sees it a perfect way to reach his long lost love Latika, played by Freida Pinto, who watches the program without fail.
The film features well-known Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan.
In order to calm down spirits who felt insulted by the movie, the producers have announced that a part of the box-office earnings will go a welfare fund set up for the improvement of slums in Mumbai (Bombay).
