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 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
Slumdog Millionaire sold out!
Arthur J Pais November 17, 2008 
A scene from Slumdog Millionaire.
All eyes it seems are on the triumphant American release of Quantum of Solace which has hijacked $70 million in just three days, far exceeding the Hollywood expectations. But discerning eyes will also see the news about the under dog movie Slumdog Millionaire not only getting the some of the best reviews in recent years but also doing brisk business in arthouses. The Danny Boyle directed film, focusing on three slum children in Mumbai and their tryst with fate as grown-ups,�grossed a highly promising $420,000 in just five days in 10 theatres in North American cities. Playing in New York, DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Toronto, it enjoyed several sold out shows on Saturday. It is adding 22 screens next Friday as it expands to more cities including Boston, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, and Phoenix. And �by the first week of December, as the awards and years-best films season is approaching, it could be on 500 screens. 'Four stars simply aren't enough for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which just may be the most entertaining movie I've ever labled a masterpiece in these pages,' wrote Lou Lumnick in The New York Post. The headline for the piece read: SLUMDERFUL! Boyle, known for the gritty Trainspotting and the magical fable Millions, has never made anything like Slumdog in his two decades in movies. And reviewers were quick to point out this important factor.  THIS 'MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD.
Giving the film four stars out of four, Lumnick added: 'Great movies transport the audience, and this one left me floating on air after two viewings. I can't wait to see it again -- and share it with others.' Made for just about $15 million -- peanuts compared to an average cost of $80 million for a Hollywood film -- Slumdog will start barking in European theatres starting in January. Though the film is running only in a handful of cities, the reviews in the national publications such as USA Today has raised its profile across the country. Claudia Puig too gave it four stars out of a max four in USA Today. 'The exhilarating and sweeping Slumdog Millionaire is one in a million,' she wrote. 'Director Danny Boyle's riveting and kaleidoscopic tale, based on Vikas Swarup's debut novel Q and A, is exquisitely adapted to the screen by Simon Beaufoy. A Dickensian story, Slumdog is both universal and quintessentially Indian. Some of the film is in Hindi, which heightens a sense of authenticity, as does the musical score (A R Rahman).  The movie, starring Anil Kapoor as the devious quiz show host, Dev Patel and Freida Pinto as the lovers separated in their younger years, and Irrfan Khan as the sadistic police Inspector has India's Loveleen Tandan as the co-director.
The Washington Post hailed the film as a 'a modern-day rags-to-rajah fable.' 'It won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year,' the newspaper wrote, 'and it's easy to see why. With its timely setting of a swiftly globalizing India and, more specifically, the country's own version of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire TV show, Slumdog Millionaire plays like Charles Dickens for the 21st century.' It added: 'But in this particular saga, the coal dust of Victorian England has been replaced by the Tata fumes and computer-screen glow that envelop a country in the throes of profound economic and cultural change.' 'Boyle borrows heavily from Bollywood, and every dazzling frame seems ready to overflow -- with people, emotions and a riot of color,' Elizabeth Weitzman, wrote in Daily News. 'The romance is shamelessly soap-operatic, and the mood swings wildly from despair to joy. But when Boyle pulls back to show us his grand vision, it's a stunner. And everything suddenly falls into place, as if this uncommonly daring film was fated to work from the very start.' Even the tough critic Manohla Dargis of The New York Times surrendered to the film.. Calling it bright, cheery, hard-to-resist movie, she wrote: 'It's an undeniably attractive package, a seamless mixture of thrills and tears, armchair tourism (the Taj Mahal makes a guest appearance during a sprightly interlude) and crackerjack professionalism. Both the reliably great Irrfan Khan (A Mighty Heart), as a sadistic detective, and the Bollywood star Anil Kapoor, as the preening game-show host, run circles around the young Mr Patel, an agreeable enough if vague centerpiece to all this coordinated, insistently happy chaos. At the Toronto International Film Festival in early September, Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times and a widely syndicated reviewer was among the very first to write that Slumdog could be a serious contender for Oscar nominations.  Reviewing the film recently, he gave it a maximum four stars. It 'hits the ground running,' wrote the critic who has championed many films by Indian directors including Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta. 'This is a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating at the same time, about a Mumbai orphan who rises from rags to riches on the strength of his lively intelligence. The film's universal appeal will present the real India to millions of moviegoers for the first time.'
What is the real India according to Ebert, the readers would surely want to know. There is the India of extreme poverty, he wrote. 'The India of Mother Teresa still exists. Because it is side-by-side with the new India, it is easily seen. People living in the streets. A woman crawling from a cardboard box,' he explained. 'Men bathing at a fire hydrant. Men relieving themselves by the roadside. You stand on one side of the Hooghly River, a branch of the Ganges that runs through Kolkata, and your friend tells you, "On the other bank millions of people live without a single sewer line."'
'On the other hand is the world's largest middle class, mostly lower-middle, but all the more admirable,' he continued 'Slumdog Millionaire bridges these two Indias by cutting between a world of poverty and the Indian version of� Who Wants to be a Millionaire.'
Come Friday, many more reviews will follow and the film could cross the $1 million barrier, and settle down for a long, sleeper-hit run. ____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#1 18 Nov 2008 01:08
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| Thanks for the useful Topic sur : |
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Music
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'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
Soundtrack
Composer A. R. Rahman planned the score over two months and completed it in two weeks. He has stated he was aiming for "mixing modern India and the old India" with the music, but that the film and soundtrack "isn’t about India or Indian culture. The story could happen anywhere." Boyle, who "hated sentiment" and told Rahman "Never put a cello in my film", wanted a "pulsey" score.
Rahman appreciated that Boyle liked how Indian films mix music, saying the director wanted "edgy, upfront" music that did not sound suppressed. Composing pieces to fit the images, he noted "there’s not many cues in the film. Usually a big film has 130 cues. This had just seventeen or eighteen: the end credits, beginning credits." Describing the music as one of the parts he liked most in the film, Boyle wanted to include M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" from early on in production on the score, which appears along with an original track Rahman composed, "O...Saya," featuring Arulpragasam. M.I.A., who Rahman described as a "powerhouse" and Boyle hailed as "a gift" to the soundtrack gave brief film notes on some scenes to Boyle upon request during editing.
Last edited by Music on 19 Nov 2008 00:42; edited 1 time in total
____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#2 18 Nov 2008 01:38
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Music
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD.
____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#3 18 Nov 2008 01:38
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Music
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) dir. Danny Boyle
Starring: Dev Patel, Irfan Kahn, Anil Kapoor, Freida Pinto 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD.
Last edited by Music on 19 Nov 2008 00:39; edited 2 times in total
____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#4 18 Nov 2008 01:41
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Music
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'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
 Title: Slumdog Millionaire Names: Dev Patel Characters: Jamal Malik
Last edited by Music on 19 Nov 2008 00:40; edited 2 times in total
____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#5 18 Nov 2008 01:47
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king12
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'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
Exclusive: Dev Patel is the Slumdog Millionaire
November 14, 2008
 Back in August, few Americans had heard of 18-year-old Dev Patel, but that should change by year's end when they see him starring in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, an epic underdog story set in Mumbai, India in which Patel plays Jamal Malik, a young man from the slums of Bombay, who gets onto the popular game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" and knows the answers to all the questions.
Patel used to be part of the ensemble cast of the British teen drama "Skins" (which can be seen in this country on BBC America), where he caught the eye of Boyle's daughter; the next thing you know, Patel was off to Mumbai for months to shoot his first major feature film with one of England's most respected directors.
As big fans of the film, we were excited to sit down with this young actor to talk about the experience making his first Bollywood-style film with a filmmaker like Danny Boyle no less... but only after Dev turned his own handheld camera on us to ask what we thought of the movie for his own blog. (No, we have no idea if our response was usable.)
(You can also read our interview with director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy here.)
ComingSoon.net: I spoke with Danny back in Toronto and he mentioned that his daughter suggested you for the role of Jamal, which is a strange way of getting cast for a movie. Did he just call you or your agent or what was the process?
Dev Patel: Yeah, I was doing this show called "Skins" in London, and I think they were having trouble finding the lead guy, and as Danny always puts it, I think they were too buff out in India, so he couldn't find the right dude. His daughter was watching "Skins" and I think she said, "Why don't you give this guy a go?" and then the casting director, Gail Stevens, gave me a call and then I went on tape and here I am today really.
CS: Did he send you a script or sides of just some of your scenes?
Patel: I actually just had sides at the start, and yeah, I just had a small scene which is not in there anymore, when he's having an argument with his brother about destiny and stuff like that. Yeah, it was quite shocking. I remember reading it and thinking a 17-year-old guy is talking about soulmates and destiny, and I was like, "God, do kids our age really talk about that?" But yeah, once you get the whole script, it all makes sense.
CS: You didn't go and read the book and try and find out more about your character?
Patel: No, I didn't, because the book's a lot different than the script. If you read it, the book, each individual chapter could be taken out of context and put as its own film. There isn't anything fluid throughout it really, but from the book, we do use the whole "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" thing as a skeleton to provide the flashbacks, but the thing is the love story. Simon Beaufoy has done an amazing job interweaving this love story into it, that just ties it all together and gives it that depth really.
CS: Was Danny already in India doing all of his casting there when he found you?
Patel: He was. I think I came into it quite late actually, and yeah, they'd been looking out in L.A. and India, and I went on tape, because he was out promoting "Sunshine" as well, so they just put me on tape. Then, from there, on the second audition, I think they liked me and then I was straight with Danny doing it, and I had a few more auditions after that until they told me I got the role.
 CS: What was the first stuff you shot for the movie? Did you do all the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" stuff first?
Patel: No, that was actually right near the end, that was probably the last stuff we did. I mean, the hardest thing about doing this role was it wasn't in a chronological order. It's so complicated as it is, because everything is based on flashbacks and I have to garner this emotion from a past event that's really shocked his life. We were jumping all over the place, but honestly, it was great having Danny to set the scene, it was good yeah.
CS: Did you get to watch any of what he'd shot with the younger kids?
Patel: I did actually, I did get to watch and when we watched it, we were like, "Wow! We've got to raise our game because these kids are amazing." They're great little actors, and they don't even know the extent of what they're doing. They're playing in between takes and things like that and than all of a sudden, everyone's like "Ready?" and they'll just switch into serious mode, quickly smash out their lines to perfection, and then get back to playing again. We were just in awe of these little kids because we were working so hard, writing notes and things like that, but they're great kids.
CS: Were you on set at all while they were there shooting?
Patel: We were, yeah? I was there a lot and in the rehearsal process, we saw these kids doing rehearsals and there needed to be that continuity between us, so hopefully one of us doesn't stick out like sore thumbs.
CS: Did you know Danny's work beforehand?
Patel: Yeah, of course. This is Danny Boyle we're talking about in London, and yeah, I'd seen most of his films already, but I decided to get all the DVDs so I could see the director's commentary on most of them. See what he's like and stuff like that, because I'd only met him in auditions and I really wanted to have a feel of how he'd direct me, so I watched these.
CS: I'd think that you could see how good he is with kids from watching "Millions."
Patel: He is, he's great. He's a great actor's director, especially on a set in Mumbai where everything's so chaotic and it's so easy to get lost in it all and get stressed out. When he's talking to you, he has a wicked way of just engaging you, and you forget about everything and just get into that role, into character for that scene.
CS: Had you ever been to Mumbai before or were you familiar at all with the movie scene there?
Patel: No, I'd been to India but not Mumbai, and that was a very young age, so yeah, this was quite new to me.
CS: What was that experience like? There are a lot of British actors who do go back and forth a lot and work in Bollywood. What was your first experience in that kind of setting vs. doing a TV show for so long?
Patel: It was good for me actually, because I was away from home and I was just immersed in Mumbai. I mean, I was playing this character and I was there, so I had no other distractions. I could sleep and breathe this character. I was there with the people, the culture, everyone speaking Hindi around me. You really get into the role, which really helped.
 CS: What was your relationship with the actor playing your brother? When you did your scenes with him, you already had all this backstory, so did you get a chance to spend time with him to establish that connection?
Patel: Yeah, he was a great guy, his name is Madhur Mittal, and we spent a lot of time together. I actually met him before I met Freida, the girl that plays Latika. I went to his house and met his family and actually stayed the night in his house and then he took me out to all these places I wouldn't be allowed to go. He took me to all these snooker clubs and meeting all his friends and we went out to watch films. Sometimes, it would be a bit rough and tumble, but it was great, because I got to see a part of Mumbai that I wouldn't be able to see otherwise, being in an air-conditioned car or something like that, you know what I mean? So it was great for the character and he's a great guy. I remember he took me to watch this film called "Chak de Indias" which is a big hit out in India, a Bollywood film, and it was crazy. I was sitting in a cinema in India with him and everyone was... It's weird, it's like going to watch theater where everyone's so involved in it and like when they don't like something, they'll start throwing popcorn at the screens, this was in the cinema, and then a massive fight broke out behind us, on the other rows, and I was the only one affected by this, two big men having a fight behind us, rowing with each other in Hindi, and everyone else is just watching the film like nothing had happened. It was crazy.
CS: Have they shown "Slumdog Millionaire" there yet?
Patel: No, the first time I saw it was at Toronto.
CS: I'll be curious to know how this movie will go over there with those kinds of audiences.
Patel: Yeah, I know, 'cause they're the real deal. They'll know if there's a fake, right?
CS: Were you able to connect easily with Madhur even though you came from different backgrounds?
Patel: I mean, Danny's cast him pretty well, but me and Madhur are quite different people He's very loud, but we got along really well, and on set, he's a very good actor. We spent a lot of time talking, and he's a really good friend now to me. Just on set we'd talk with each other and really got into it, really got into that zone. Spending a lot of time with him off-set really helped I think.
CS: What about Freida? Did you get time to rehearse with her before doing your scenes?
Patel: Of course. Me, him and Freida were like the Three Musketeers. Me being out of London, they took me around everywhere and showing me some of Mumbai. There was a lot of downtime obviously, so we were hanging around together a lot of the time. The characters we're playing, they're so intimate with each other, there's love beyond the greatest bounds when he's trying to find this girl, and there's really, really strong brotherly love. I mean, they've lost each other for ages, but then there's that whole story about his brother being tainted, he gets into gangs and things like that. It's a real strong story, so we had to get to know each other real well to garner some sort of emotions at that level.
CS: Not being from Mumbai, were you able to relate to Jamal's journey at all?
Patel: Of course, I think everybody can relate to that. I mean, everyone's drawn to that whole underdog story I think, and he's just a great character, his rise through adversity. He's going to do anything to get this girl. He gets sh*t from everyone, he's tortured, he's interrogated, but he's got a strong sense of destiny, and he'll move mountains to get to her, literally if he has to. To get to her, he's literally one-track minded, that is his aim in life, his mission, and it's a brilliant story. For him, 20 million rupees isn't the prize, it's the girl. For a boy coming from the slums, it's even more awesome. Where a lot of people in that situation are, money is a big dream for them, but that's not his dream.
 CS: I was thinking more of relating to that extreme situation of coming from the slums and such extreme poverty and that unique experience. Do you have to suspend disbelief when playing him or do you have to believe that this can happen?
Patel: Yeah, you do. I mean, it does keep you on the edge of your seat for a bit, and of course it does, and you just want to root for him when you watch it, I think. In the end, we are embracing that sort of Bollywood film, that sort of escapism. So there is that sort of dreamy environment. I mean, it is pretty out there, a kid from the slums winning "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" but if you come from Mumbai and you live in the slums or wherever, which is a large population, you don't want to watch things that remind you of the lack of water you have or what a bad situation you're in. You want to be escorted away into a land of people who are madly in love, heroes and heroines, dancing in mountains.
CS: Is "Millionaire" really as popular there as we see in the movie?
Patel: Yeah, yeah, the guy who hosts it is called Amitabh Bachchan, and he's like a mega-star there, he's massive. Anil Kapoor (the host of the show in the movie) is massive as well, he's a big superstar over there.
CS: What is it like working with actors like him and Irrfan Khan, who are just so huge and popular there.
Patel: He's massive, and they've got that great chemistry with the camera. They've been around the camera for so long and done so may films, it's great to watch. Going into the scenes, they really set the scene, the atmosphere in the room. I just went along with the flow really, we were just in their hands. Irrfan especially, there's a lot of improvisation and things like that and he's great, such a subtle actor, and it was great to work with people like him.
CS: How many days were you shooting all the "Millionaire" stuff on that set?
Patel: I think it was two weeks or so, and that was good because we did that in chronological order, which made it easier. I went on there the first day with all these extras on set, and I was really nervous. The whole experience of all these extras on set and I don't know what they're saying and they're all staring at me, and if I mess up, they're all going to be watching.
CS: But that was probably good for your performance.
Patel: Yeah, a good thing, and then I started to warm as we got along with it, yeah.
CS: Did Danny try to shoot entire scenes of the "Millionaire" thing like they would do the show or did he just break it up and do each person separately?
Patel: We'd done it by questions but we used so many different cameras, we'd done like long chunks of it and things like that.
CS: I know you're done with "Skins" so what else do you have coming up?
Patel: "Skins" is finished, they've got a new cast in that, and I had to leave that anyway to do "Slumdog" so it was good timing for me, really, but yeah, I'm out looking now.
CS: What are you looking for? More television stuff at all? Or going to Hollywood on the love this movie is getting?
Patel: I don't really know. I just think getting to work with some great actors and get some experience or just some good roles that interest me I think.
CS: Are there any specific genres you like?
Patel: Anything really... honestly. I'm really open-minded and I like to try everything and be as versatile as I can
____________ Katra katra milthii hain, katra katra jeene do,
zindagi hain, behne do, pyaasi hoon main pyasi rehne do
from the movie Ijaazat.
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#6 18 Nov 2008 19:52
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Music
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'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
A game-show backdrop lets 'Slumdog Millionaire' weave a dynamic tale of life and love. By Kenneth Turan MOVIE CRITIC > > >
November 12, 2008 Who would believe that the best old-fashioned audience picture of the year, a Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way, was made on the streets of India with largely unknown stars by a British director who never makes the same movie twice? Go figure.
That would be the hard-to-resist " Slumdog Millionaire," with director Danny Boyle adding independent film touches to a story of star-crossed romance that the original Warner brothers would have embraced, shamelessly pulling out stops that you wouldn't think anyone would have the nerve to attempt anymore.
But Boyle has been nothing if not bold with this film. He's dared to use so many venerable movie elements it's dizzying, dared us to say we won't be moved or involved, dared us to say we're too hip to fall for tricks that are older than we are. And, as witnessed by "Slumdog's" capturing of the Toronto Film Festival's often prophetic audience award, he's won that bet.
Because he's a director who is always up for something different, Boyle's films run an unmatchable gamut, from the punk operatics of "Trainspotting" to the sweetness of "Millions," the shock of "28 Days Later" and the science-fiction theatrics of "Sunshine." What unites all of them, though, is the unstoppable cinematic energy pouring off the screen that's at the heart of Boyle's always vigorous style.
Given that, it was perhaps inevitable that the director would end up making a film in India, plugging effortlessly into the phenomenal liveliness and nonstop street life of the place. And he's upped the ante by hiring the great A.R. Rahman, the king of Bollywood music, to contribute one of his unmistakable propulsive scores.
All this dynamism is at the service of a script by "The Full Monty's" Simon Beaufoy, which is in turn based on "Q&A," a novel by Vikas Swarup that involves, of all things, the Indian version of the hit TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." If this sounds like unlikely source material for involving cinema, you're not alone in your thoughts: Boyle initially had the same reaction.
What won the director over is the dynamic, almost Dickensian arc of "Slumdog's" story, which begins with a multiple-choice question typed on the screen. "Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees," it reads. "How did he do it? A) He cheated. B) He's lucky. C) He's a genius. D) It is written."
Jamal Malik (Dev Patel of the British TV series "Skins"), the slumdog of the title, turns out to be an impoverished 18-year-old orphan who works hurriedly serving tea to harried telephone solicitors in the great city of Mumbai.
We see Jamal in two places almost at once in the film's cross-cut opening. He's on stage on the "Millionaire" telecast, being needled by Prem (Anil Kapoor), the show's arrogant host. And he's also in a police station the night before the final telecast, being brutally interrogated ("Slumdog" is rated R for "some violence, disturbing images and language") because no one can believe that such a lowly, uneducated person has been able to answer all the questions that he has.
To get back on the show for the final question -- by explaining to the dubious police inspector (Irfan Khan) how he came to know what he does -- Jamal has to tell him (and us) the story of his life, a story where, in true Frank Capra fashion, chance, luck, suffering and street smarts all play major parts.
Jamal's companion in most things is his older brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), a hard-headed cynic where Jamal is a passionate dreamer, the kind of kid who is willing, in one of the film's most piquant scenes, to literally wade through the offal from an outhouse to get to his hero, Indian film legend Amitabh Bachchan.
Because Jamal's and Salim's lives are full of incident despite their youth, it takes three actors apiece to tell their stories. The youngest of them are Hindi-speaking street kids whom casting director Loveleen Tandan (whose work was so crucial that Boyle gives her a co-director credit) both discovered and worked with closely.
As Jamal describes the specific incidents that led to his being able to answer each of the quiz show questions, he is simultaneously telling several stories, tales of the link between brothers, the never-ending battle with poverty, the lure and pitfalls of crime and the rapid modernization of India.
But most of all -- and it wouldn't be a Hollywood-style movie if this weren't true -- he's telling a romantic story as well, a tale of love at first sight with the beautiful Latika (played as an adult by Freida Pinto), a love that has to fight against all manner of privations, disappointments and despair.
To make this kind of story modern, Boyle and his team, especially cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantel and editor Chris Dickens, have told it in the jazziest way possible, breaking things up into numerous then and now sections and making the dark elements (like the torture used in the initial police interview) much darker than would have been the case in Hollywood's prime. The Warner brothers would have blanched at that, but they would have loved this story, and in that they would have been far from alone. kenneth.turan@latimes.com
Last edited by Music on 19 Nov 2008 00:41; edited 1 time in total
____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#7 19 Nov 2008 00:10
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Music
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD.
Slumdog Millionaire's music isn't about India' November 17, 2008  The Maharaja of modern Indian music, A R Rahman, has talent and vision the stuff of legend, a unanimously recognized musical genius that comes around once-a-generation. So it was only a matter of time before Hollywood scooped him up and sampled his skills; and that's exactly what happened, first in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the musical Bombay Dreams and now in Danny Boyle's mega-hyped, Mumbai-based Slumdog Millionaire.
As evidence of his rising celebrity, and to give you insight into the creative process behind the beats of Boyle's masterpiece, we point you to this interview from the prestigious pages of New York Magazine -- a lifestyle mag known especially for its fashion/celebrity/arts/gossip coverage, which always seems to be on the cutting edge of what's in, what's cool and what's happening. So, given the elite-ness of the publication, this brief QnA session undoubtedly portends great things for Rahman's Hollywood future. And it appears a more comprehensive future is indeed likely. In the interview, an effusive Rahman has nothing but kind words for director, calling him not only a fast worker and humorous, but also a 'good human being.' Explaining the differences between working for Hollywood and Bollywood, Rahman says, 'There's not many cues in the film. Usually a big film has 130 cues. This had just seventeen or eighteen: the end credits, beginning credits, that stuff.' He went on to say that, 'It took two months of planning, two weeks of completing. Usually it takes six months with the musical films I'm doing in India.' But does the film's music, which is earning near-universal praise from critics, paint an accurate aural portrait of Mumbai? Rahman believes that, 'The soundtrack isn't about India or Indian culture. The story could happen anywhere: China, Brazil, anywhere. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is on in every damn country.' Yes, really and truly, it appears that the West has woken up to India. We have a feeling Hollywood isn't quite finished with the uber-talented Rahman. So stay tuned!
____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#8 19 Nov 2008 00:21
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sur
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
Thursday, November 13, 2008 Posted by Alan Bacchus SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE Slumdog Millionaire (2008) dir. Danny Boyle
Starring: Dev Patel, Irfan Kahn, Anil Kapoor, Freida Pinto****
With Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” now in public release we can finally start discussing Oscar legitimately. Boyle's latest film is impossible to place into a genre, it’s a sweeping coming of age film, love story, exotic adventure and triumph of the human spririt all rolled up into a film about a young man who plays India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”. Danny Boyle injects his story with the same cinematic energy as his other classics “Trainspotting”, “28 Days Later”. It's a stunning directorial achievement, and with only 6 weeks left in the year, I can say with almost certainty there won't be a better film this year.
“Slumdog Millionaire” stands out as old-fashioned Hollywood escapism. Yet, there isn’t a recognizable Hollywood face in the entire film. It’s all set in India in 2006. A young Indian man Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be Millionaire”. He appears to have won but instead of celebrating we first see him strung up and tortured by the police who have accused him of cheating. After many excruciating torture techniques Jamal won’t confess. So they sit him down in front of the videotape of the show and Jamal recounts how he knew each and every question on the show.
As each question is read out by the India equivalent of Regis Philbin, we flashback to the specific incident which recalled each of Jamal’s answers. And so in one half hour game show we get to see a sampling of Jamal’s extraordinary young life. We see Jamal as a child become orphaned, live on the streets begging, stealing, to survive – living a life of poverty like millions and millions of other impoverished kids. Except this one slumdog is about to win the biggest jackpot in the country and make him a millionaire.
Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy use the life story flashback technique of “Citizen Kane” as it’s narrative structure. After the first couple of flashbacks I figured out what the technique was and I expected a predictable course of action. Indeed the film doesn’t waver from its course, but Jamal’s life is so extraordinary it becomes a unique and eye opening view into Indian subculture.
As expected with a ‘Danny Boyle film’ he sets a blistering pace and challenges us to keep up. There are numerous chases through the populated Mumbai streets, bold eye-popping colours, and an exciting pop music soundtrack. Boyle has always had a great ear for music. Whether it’s the Brit pop music in “Trainspotting” or his pulsing ambient rhythms of “28 Days Later” and “Sunshine”, there’s always something special to listen to in his film. A.R. Rahman (“Elizabeth The Golden Age”, “Water”) provides an eclectic score mixed in with fresh energetic Indian pop music. There are few familiar tunes, but it had me yearning to find the soundtrack and listen to it in the car ride home.
I saw the film in press and industry screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was 9:00am and most of the crowd, like me, were still trying to wake up after a long day of movie watching, partying, or in my case writing late night reviews. After 120mins the film ended on such a high the entire audience applauded spontaneously – a rarity for the jaded businesslike industry crowd. And even more rare is that the audience stayed through the end credits.
After Boyle bombards us with so much story, adventure, melodrama and nail-biting game show suspense, he’s still not content with pleasing us. Over the final credits the entire cast treats us to a raucous Bollywood style dance sequence, intercut with flashing picture credits set to a foot-tapping bangra number. “Slumdog Millionaire” is crowd-pleasing optimistic filmmaking at it’s best. It shines a beacon of light on a subsection of the world that has little hope. Enjoy.
____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#9 20 Nov 2008 00:54
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Raja
Joined: June 2007
Posts: 912
Location: USA
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
Ever since I first screened Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire at the Telluride Film Festival, I’ve been waiting, and hoping for a soundtrack to be released. The songs have occupied my mind, and I became convinced that a soundtrack might never see the light of day, especially after /Film’s own David Chen explained the fate of the soundtrack to Boyle’s Sunshine. It’s hard to sit through this film and not admire A.R. Rahman’s unique mix of Bollywood with hip-hop. My favorite track plays within the first 10 minutes of the film — “O… Saya” features an original collaboration with M.I.A. You’ll know the song I’m talking about when you hear it. There have been a bunch of websites that have compiled track listings of the songs that are available for purchase or download around the web. But some of the songs, like O… Saya, are simply not available anywhere. MTV has discovered that the soundtrack will be released online on November 25th, and in stores on December 23rd. The complete track listing can be found below: 1. “O… Saya” Performed by A R Rahman & M.I.A.
2. “Riots” by A R Rahman
3. “Mausam & Escape” by A R Rahman
4. “Paper Planes” Performed by M.I.A.
5. “Paper Planes” DFA REMIX Performed by M.I.A.
6. “”Ringa Ringa” by A R Rahman featuring Alka Yagnik & Ila Arun
7. “Liquid Dance” by A R Rahman featuring Palakkad Sriram & Madhumitha
8. “Latika’s Theme” by A R Rahman featuring Suzanne
9. “Aaj Ki Raat” Performed by Sonu Nigam, Mahalaxmi Lyer & Alisha Chinoi
10. “Millionaire” by A R Rahman featuring Madhumitha
11. “Gangsta Blues” by A R Rahman featuring BlaaZe & Tanvi Shah
12. “Dreams on Fire” by A R Rahman featuring Suzzanne
13. “Jai Ho” by A R Rahman featuring Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah & Mahalaxmi Iyer And for those of you who might be wondering, Bruce Springstein will be including the original song he wrote for Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler on his new album, which hits stores on January 27th 2009. ____________ “Simplicity. What turns me on.” Please enlighten me.
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#10 25 Nov 2008 09:07
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10620
Location: Virginia
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
Slumdog Millionaire sold out! Arthur J Pais
November 17, 2008 A scene from Slumdog Millionaire. All eyes it seems are on the triumphant American release of Quantum of Solace which has hijacked $70 million in just three days, far exceeding the Hollywood expectations. But discerning eyes will also see the news about the under dog movie Slumdog Millionaire not only getting the some of the best reviews in recent years but also doing brisk business in arthouses. The Danny Boyle directed film, focusing on three slum children in Mumbai and their tryst with fate as grown-ups, grossed a highly promising $420,000 in just five days in 10 theatres in North American cities. Playing in New York, DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Toronto, it enjoyed several sold out shows on Saturday. It is adding 22 screens next Friday as it expands to more cities including Boston, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, and Phoenix. And by the first week of December, as the awards and years-best films season is approaching, it could be on 500 screens.
____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#11 26 Nov 2008 00:47
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Music
Moderator
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 3983
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
Slumdog Millionaire Bags 3 Top Awards at British Independent Film Awards Monday, December 1, 2008, 
Danny Boyle’s latest offering Slumdog Millionaire has been making waves in the festival circuit for a while. Now the film, which opened across cinema halls in the US recently, has even managed to woo the American audiences. The film is performing extremely well at the US Box office and is now getting ready for its UK release. The latest is that Slumdog Millionaire has managed to bag three top awards at the British Independent Film Awards. The film not just bagged the ‘Best Film’ award, but also earned Danny Boyle the ‘Best Director’ award while newcomer Dev Patel walked away with the ‘Most Promising Newcomer’ award. With the kind of appreciation and recognition that this film is getting with each passing day, don’t be surprised if the film even manages to get an Oscar nomination. Slumdog Millionaire stars Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan in lead roles. The film is set to release in India sometime in January next year. ____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#12 02 Dec 2008 00:13
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Music
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Joined: November 2006
Posts: 3983
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
11/14/2008 We've already raved about "Slumdog Millionaire" and covered one of the year's best films extensively, but thus far very little information has been made available about the film's soundtrack. Acclaimed Indian Composer A.R Rahman recently sat down with NY Magazine to shed some more light on the vibrant, unique sounds of "Slumdog". Rahman, considering his enormous popularity in South Asia, is still a largely unknown commodity in the States. He's reportedly sold over 100 million records in India and is just now breaking in to Hollywood with "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and now "Slumdog". With Rahman booked on an absurd amount of Bollywood films (check his IMDB), Danny Boyle reached out with the idea and was able to sell him on "Millionaire". "I literally had to leave another film to do this. When Danny met me, he said, “I’ve heard a lot of your stuff’ and he talked about it. That’s about the first time I’ve heard a compliment from a Western director, apart from Andrew Webber. He’s a good human being." Like most of Boyle's work, the film relies heavily on music to compliment the narrative and bring the story to life in another way. Aerial shots of dilapidated neighborhoods and jarring, handheld chase sequences are accented by resonant music that makes authentic India come alive in a way Wes Anderson was never able to achieve. Rahman brings his distinctly original style to the film, drawing inspiration from multiple places. "I had to do stuff from modern India, eighties Hindi film soundtracks, mixing modern India and the old India. He wanted something very pulse-y. He said he hated sentiment, hated cello. No cellos! He said, “Never put a cello in my film” — he was funny. I worked fast, like him. It took two months of planning, two weeks of completing. Usually it takes six months with the musical films I’m doing in India. Another selling point for American audiences is the involvement of M.I.A, who blew up here about a year late. She worked with Rahman on an original song for the film called "O… Saya". "We met before but never worked before. M.I.A., she’s a real powerhouse. Somebody played me her CD and I thought, Who’s this girl? She came here and knew all my work, had followed my work for ages. I said "Cut the crap," this "my idol" crap. You have to teach me. We started working in India, then we e-mailed the track back and forth. She did the vocals in England. I did the rest in India." Peep the full interview for more on Rahman's experience in Bollywood and interpretation on the universal storytelling aspects of "Slumdog." Opening in limited release this week, do yourself a favor and see this film. ____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#13 03 Dec 2008 00:11
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Music
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
O...SAYA-AR RAHMAN/MIA
____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#14 13 Dec 2008 01:50
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Music
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Re: 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' IS WELL WORTH IN GOLD.
Slumdog Millionaire Trailer Category: Movies Author : Duncan Riley Posted: November 12, 2008
Tags : danny boyle, slumdog, slumdog millionaire, slumdog millionaire music, slumdog millionaire trailer  Indian film Slumdog Millionaire was given a limited released in the United States this week, and is being talked about already as a possible Oscar contender. The movie is the story of how impoverished Indian teen Jamal Malik became a contestant on the Hindi version of “Who Wants to be A Millionaire?” — an endeavor made without prize money in mind, rather, an effort to prove his love for his friend Latika, who is an ardent fan of the show. Slumdog Millionaire has some interesting stories as well, like how Mercedes Benz refused to allow their product to be shown because they didn’t want to be associated with Slums. ____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#15 14 Dec 2008 23:16
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