Slumdog Millionaire Review:
Salaam Bombay for a new generation?

"Is India really like that?" my friend quizzed me as the credits rolled on Slumdog Millionaire. She looked a little worried so my answer to her was a really decisive Yes And No.

So why did she even have to ask that when she's just seen the "Feel good movie of the year?" Hmmm...Well, that's the way it's being marketed, and I'm glad as it means more people may go to see the movie than would otherwise.

But it's not all confetti and smiles as the billboard hoardings may suggest, as anyone who's read the novel 'Q&A' on which it's based, will know. But my impression (it's been a long time since I read the book),is that the movie definitely felt lighter than the book. But still, the movie does have some disturbing scenes and topics, so it would be good to keep that in mind--but see it anyway.

When I first was preparing to go to India, I was given Mira Nair's movie 'Salaam Bombay' almost as a primer on the darker side of life in one of the world's biggest cities. I feel like Slumdog Millionaire could be the 'Salaam Bombay' for a new generation.

And although it's been said before, it's true that this isn't a bollywood movie made by locals, it's through an English lens, which is the only excuse I can think of for the last line of the script...but I won't spoil it here. But that's no reason to discount the movie--things like this movie happen every day all over India.

So, in my fuller answer to my friend, India is like Slumdog Millionaire depicts. But it's also more benign than the movie might suggest. There are a billion life-stories in India and that was one fictional, yet true to life, part of a much larger picture.

And it's not false marketing to say that it's a feel good movie. It is. Everyone I know who's seen it has left feeling good, it's just a bit of a journey to get there. But isn't a great story always worth it?

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