D. It is written

It is written - it certainly is. Bloody-well brilliantly written, at that.

The screenplay of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire is certainly deserving of the above accolade. And much more than that - an Academy honor, perhaps?

Well, Oscar mania aside, Slumdog is a superb motion picture. Right from its riveting screenplay, to wonderfully cast non-actors, a terrific soundtrack (that man Rehman, at it again), exquisite camerawork and above all, a throbbing, passionate soul that bares itself to you so splendidly, that as a viewer, you sometimes find a lump go down your throat. Really, you couldn't ask for more. This is as wholesome a cinematic experience as it gets.

I haven't read Vikas Swarup's QnA to decide how much of it has been translated onto the screen, but I know for a fact that the movie has perhaps taken the written text to an altogether different level. But to give credit to Vikas, the basic premise of the story is a sure shot winner. Clearly inspired by hours of being glued to the telly watching AB and SRK dole out KBC magic, Vikas seems to have struck gold with the story idea - what if, each and every question posed to you on that hot-seat was interlinked with your life in some manner, the answers to which are a slice of your own freaking life. As if every moment of your living life has been a prep for these very set of questions. It is all written, as they say.

More than the story, the beauty lies in the execution. The editing pattern, though predictable after a point of time - cutting to the flashback story for every question that Anil Kapoor, the quiz show host (the actor clearly enjoying himself), or Irrfan Khan, the police inspector (almost sleepwalking through his part as if he were a veteran of such cinema) poses - still does work very well. It keeps you on the edge of your seat through the entire duration of the movie - a rare feat these days.

Some of the scenes just grab you by the scruff of your collar and shake you up so bad with the starkness and realism, that you cringe in your seat. I can't remember the last time when I had to close my eyes and look down in the darkness of the theatre to let a scene pass by. Slumdog did that to me. Shook me out of my confines. One of my friends was in tears. I thought there was a real danger of her running out of the theatre, sobbing inconsolably, but thankfully, she pulled through. God bless butter popcorn.

And then there are scenes, that please you to such an extent that you find yourself smiling loudly (not that ha ha ha kinda laugh) and clapping your hands, cheering for the onscreen protagonist. Like the kids playing a game of cricket on the outskirts of the airport's runway being chased by two portly policemen, Or Jamaal dropping a towering catch distracted by the roar of plane taking off, Or when a young Jamaal starts narrating a fictional story of how the Taj was built, Or when in the middle of the most brutal scene in the movie, the lil Jamaal suddenly stops after starting "darshan do ghanshyam" and with almost apologetic sincerity on his face demands his remuneration - "sorry sir, professional no?"

The acting, by almost everyone, is top grade. But I think the clear winners were the three kids who played Jamaal, Latika and Salim. Such endearing emotions & screen presence, that it leaves you no option but to really feel & root for their story as if you were watching a documentary based on their real life stories. Dev Patel is another actor who stands out. Fantastic portrayal of such complex emotions. Has that amazing air of determined underdog confidence about him. You can almost feel the air emanating from his nostrils, one deep breath after another, as his life asks him questions that no game show could ever match. He certainly is an actor to look out for in the future. Hopefully he won't fall into that cliched genre of playing ABCD characters, caught between the eternal battle of lifestyle v/s values, living in the US of A. He seems much more capable than that.

And then there's AR Rehman. From the opening strains of "o saaya" accompanying the title credits to the bouyancy of Sukhwinder's "jai ho" at the finale, ARR is in top form. Make way for the Golden Globe and perhaps the Grammy too. Also credited for the magical background score, Rahman the whizkid, directly transports you from your seat to the middle of the nail-biting, sweat and blood dripping action. Utter genius.

On the technical front, Slumdog is an amalgamation of some fine work - the cinematography has that almost hand-held feel to it, perfectly playing the fly-on-the-wall, never trying to overpower the story. The editing is razor sharp, with 1-2 second closeup cuts that just let you peep into the emotion and leave you gasping for more. The production designer would have had a nightmare of a job on this one, with almost over 50-60% of the movie shot on almost-impossible-to-shoot-without-a-mishap outdoors locations across the country. But whoever has done the job, has done it fantastically - you should really be proud of this one.

Danny Boyle, the director, has managed to capture the underbelly of Bombay as if he was born and brought up in this city. He masterfully captures the core lessons the city of Bombay teaches its inhabitants - street smartness, survival of the fittest, that money - like or it not - does make the world go around, the man with the gun has the final word & adaptability, without losing that solitary ray of eternal hope, in the most adverse of circumstances. Slumdog Millionaire is a fine tribute to Bombay - the most magical city on this planet!

I was supposed to go home this December and couldn't due to some logisitcal reasons, but Slumdog ensured that for those 2 hours, I was magic-carpeted from Portland to Bombay. In the middle of it all - the chaos, the crowds, the cacophony. Kudos to that magical quality of well crafted cinema :)

And finally, as the folks at MasterCard have been framing it over the years -

A large tub of butter popcorn - $6
Cocktails for three - $30
Watching fantastic cinema with friends on a beautiful snowy Friday evening, for free, courtesy gift tickets from inane dentist referrals - literally, priceless!