If you turned to People magazine’s website immediately following the Golden Globes, you would’ve read about Kate Winslet’s fabulous two wins, about the late Heath Ledger’s victory, and numerous other highlights. But hardly a word about Danny Boyle’s makes you feel-oh-so-good exuberant movie, ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ which cleaned up big at the awards show: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Song, and let’s not forget, Best Picture (for dramatic motion picture).
But let me tell you, forget about Kate, forget about comeback star Mickey Rourke, and yes, even forget about Heath. It’s all about ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ which is aptly, as stated by a commentor to the SAJA (South Asian Journalist’s Association) forum’s website, a mark not for Hollywood, not for Bollywood, but for G-ollywood. (The G stands for global)
Let me just try and sum up this movie’s enchanting appeal: It takes a cast of basically nobodies (well, nobodies in the U.S. But in the U.K, India, and anywhere where Bollywood films are consumed, Anil Kapoor and Dev Patel are known actors) and tells the story of one child from Mumbai’s slums who grows up in the direst of circumstances, makes it onto India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and wins big — all in hopes that his childhood love might be watching and find her way back to him.
And if the Golden Globes is any indication of how the Academy Awards may play out, then here’s a quick tutorial of “Slumdog” and Indian lingo, just so you know how things should be said and who the people are:
- A.R. Rahman, the genius who took home Best Original Score? His name, as correctly stated by SAJA forum editor Arun Venuopal, is pronounced pretty much like it looks: “A.R. Roomin”?? It’s Rehh-maan, Hollywood, Rehhh-maaaahn,” Venuopal complains. “I must say, I feel slighted. When will these people learn?”
- Who’s that dude who presented the clip of the film? That’s only Shah Rukh Khan, one of the biggest, most beloved, most money-making actors in Bollywood. Think Tom Cruise, but without any cringing Katie Holmes history or Scientology rants.
- And if you want to present yourself as really in the know and cool, when someone asks you what was the best scene in the movie, you can offer up this gem: When the boy, in trying to get out of the bathroom, jumps into the head-high goopy pile of sh*t just so he can race to the airstrip to get Amitab Bachan’s autograph. In case you don’t know, Amitab is the godfather of Indian cinema, and arguably the most well-known, prolific actor in the world.
