Mark “Rent-boy” Renton :
“Choose Life. Choose a Job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fcuking big Television. Choose Washing Machines, Cars, Compact Disc Players and electrical tin opener.
Choose good health, Low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a home. Choose your friends.
Choose Leisurewear, and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase. Choose DIY wondering who the fcuking you are on a Sunday morning. Choose a couch watching mind numbing spirit crushing game shows stuffing fcuking junk food into your mouth.
Choose rotting away at the end of it all pissing your last in a miserable home nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish brats you've spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose Life !
But why would I want to do a thing like that. I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin.”
And its theme. Only, the nonconformist here swings between choosing and not choosing life.
[the last lines]
Mark “Rent-boy” Renton :
So why did I do it? I could offer a million answers - all false. The truth is that I'm a bad person. But, that's gonna change - I'm going to change. This is the last of that sort of thing. Now I'm cleaning up and I'm moving on, going straight and choosing life. I'm looking forward to it already. I'm gonna be just like you.
The job, the family, the fcuking big television. The washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electric tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisure wear, luggage, three piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine to five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing gutters, getting by, looking ahead, the day you die. **
And he shot these lines with perfection. He is Daniel Boyle, director of Slumdog Millionaire (‘Slumdog Crorepati’ in Hindi).
This is not like a movie review which you are going to read. I saw the movie once and then I heard a lot of hype about the movie. And I decided to watch it twice (just for the sake of analysis).
The movie has an original plot (restructured from a bestseller) and is different from regular thrillers. It is different but it is not extraordinary. Neither by the measure of performance nor overall.Anyways kudos to Slumdog for oscaring through awards. Though I would like to appreciate Amitabh Bachchan’s perception about not serving bollywood movies on the same platter at these foreign awards. A movie like Taare Zameen Per (to be reviewed later), got rejected. And I see no reason for its expulsion. It has a bright theme and lovely emotional storyline. On the other hand, we have Slumdog, which is dark and nothing new in it frankly (apart from plot). If Danny wanted to showcase the poverty of India and make big bugs out of it…he could have done it in a ‘Swades’ type way. The plot of Swades and Slumdog, both had poverty in them. The former shows how people are happy without basic essentials like water but still carry afford smiles easily. On the contrary, in latter you see kids from slums (alias slumdogs) took up crime as there support-stick to get rich.
There MAY be other factors too. Are Oscars going like most private awards in Hindi Movie Industry did? Are production houses behind the politics of Oscars (remember? Reliance BigTV and Walt Disney alliance)? Is it having any influence for bollywood on ‘western-market’? Speculations arise if a non-deserving candidate wins.
Last word for Rehmaan n other Indians (Gulzaar, etc). They deserved it. If not for Slumdog, definitely for his past movies. Hence, Oscars to them are justifiable. But I find no reason why Mother India, Salam Bombay, Lagaan, Taare Zameen Par should not get an oscar if Slumdog has.
I wonder what they perceive about India in the Oscarland! If Poverty exists in India, people still cherish it.
I wonder what they perceive about India in the Oscarland! If Poverty exists in India, people still cherish it.
An Indian movie (directed by a British) getting an oscar is a golden opportunity for Indian movie fraternity to capitalize on it. We have a chance now and if we still don’t dance on it, brilliant cinema like TZP, Lagaan, etc will still loose out in the coming future too.
so0O…
Jai Ho!!
** - The lines above are taken from a cult movie 'Trainspotting' directed by Danny Boyle. Trainspotting in slang means 'injecting heroin'.
2 comments:
Well i too saw the movie twice. once for the heck of it n second time to check what was so special abt it. truly speaking these wasnt anything so damn impressable abt the whole thing. it wasnt upto the mark of lagaan or TZP or better way of saying would b TZP n lagaan were no less. i guess these two movies lost it coz they were in the catagory of 'best foreign movies' n this one under 'best movie'. good blog. keep writing. wil visit u back soon!!:)
i think slumdog won coz it catered to american sensibilities. I think the thing is that we give too much to importance to oscars. It is an award of the whites, by the whites and for the whites, but still it provides recognition. Lagan faltered coz it had cricket... half the voting people's only association with cricket would have been when a leeping insect would have jumped on them and also it had songs-quite a few of them .That would have seemed like a cardinal sin to the goras.TZP also had songs , though to its credit, it didn't have any lip sync ones. Another reason i think slumdog won coz it talks about victory of hope which was specially relevant in the current recession hit times. And one thing i particularly loved in it was that it was basically a very subtle love story told with some finesse.
Post a Comment