Just finished watching the movie ... don't have much time to write about all that I felt while watching it .. in short Brilliant ! Brilliant !! and Super-Brilliant !!! .. Rarely a movie gives you so much joy ...
Rehman totally deserves the Gloden Globe for the Background Score .. why, he would even win the Oscar .. as he himself said "Indian people are crazy about Oscars" .. I think what he forgot was "..and they are crazy about Rehman (or something to the same effect)" ;)
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar .. a real cutie (even when he's covered in all that poop) who plays youngest Jamal .. deserves to be recognized as one of the best child actors of his generation ... that boy has done wonderful piece to acting .. his innocent smile and similarly intense devastatedness steals your heart .. even stops it!
Dev Patel & Freida Pinto .. they have done well with some honest, down-to-earth, and just simple .. really true-to-the character role play .. it was nice to see some fresh and young faces staying with the character throughout .. I doubt if the effect would have been the same with established actors .. barring few exceptions from the gang of "theatre actors" ..
Saurabh Shukla, Irrfan Khan do what they are good at .. nothing earth shatteringly impressive .. just about enough to remain a little out of focus and that is extremely difficult for even "manjhe hue actors" mostly because of their habit of staying in the focus .. this story required Saurabh and Irrfan to remain out of focus and they have done exactly that.
I will not say much about Mahesh Manjrekar, except - "What a waste of talent, Mahesh!"
Lasly, Mr. Anil Kapoor ... considering the kind of character he is put into, it is extremely unfair to say whether he floats or drownes .. but, as my personal openion, they just needed a famous face in the anchor's seat .. it could've been anyone .. Anil, I guess, was chosen mostly because of his age, career length in Bollywood, apparently visible experience on face, his close-to-baritone voice .. and because they needed him ;) ... whatever may be the reason .. he is to me a huge disappointment ! An actor like him should have .. ought to have done a better job at it .. I expect it .. people expect it .. but, again as I said, this may not be a very fair test and a fair opinion.
It was worth staying up till late and finishing the movie! What fun!!
And now I shall rest in peace till tomorrow dawns with afterthoughts to be penned down!
Amar
P.S. : Can you believe it? Within days after its release in US & UK, it has reached to #37 in "Top 250" movies at IMDB. It has managed to beat "Forrest Gump", "To Kill A Mockingbird", "The Pianist", "Saving Private Ryan", "Reservoir Dogs" and many many more .... what a feat!!!
