On Feb 22nd, I lost all my money on 'Slumdog millionair'. I watched this movie with my wife few months back, when it was released in US. In the first half hour of the movie itself I made a proposition to go out and save one hour of life. But my wife was so engrossed in the movie that all my grumblings went unheeded. I had to sit and sleep through the entire movie. However, towards the end of the movie everything balanced out and I came out of the theatre with an indifferent mind set. It was 'just another movie' for me. The usual rags to riches stuff.However, the same sequence of images which activated the melatonin receptors in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of my brain and induced a soporific response in me (resulting in stimulation of flexor muscles of my neck and relaxation of palpebral muscles of my eye lid, causing me to droop my head ventrally and close my eyes - popularly known as 
"sleep"), induced a totally different sets of response in the brain of an individual who sat on my next seat (my wife). The light emitted from the screen projected virtual images in her visual cortex which some how excited the lacrimal branch of her optic nerve resulting in the exhibition of 'lacrimal reflex' (aka 'crying). The reflex was manifested in such a way that it even attracted the attention of some sleepy heads in the neighboring seats. At one point I even considered alerting the security personnel regarding a potential flood situation in the theatre and the possibity of distributing life jackets to other folks watching the movie. Anyway, I linked my wifes' reaction to one extra 'X' chromosome she has and made a mental note to study this phenomenon in future. Of course, I have also became emotional while watching some movies (Bicycle thieves, Life is beutiful for Eg.) but not this one.
"sleep"), induced a totally different sets of response in the brain of an individual who sat on my next seat (my wife). The light emitted from the screen projected virtual images in her visual cortex which some how excited the lacrimal branch of her optic nerve resulting in the exhibition of 'lacrimal reflex' (aka 'crying). The reflex was manifested in such a way that it even attracted the attention of some sleepy heads in the neighboring seats. At one point I even considered alerting the security personnel regarding a potential flood situation in the theatre and the possibity of distributing life jackets to other folks watching the movie. Anyway, I linked my wifes' reaction to one extra 'X' chromosome she has and made a mental note to study this phenomenon in future. Of course, I have also became emotional while watching some movies (Bicycle thieves, Life is beutiful for Eg.) but not this one. I did not think much about this movie afterwards, although my wife fell head over heals for it. I argued with her a couple of times to convince her that it was just an average movie, but with no success (as usual). But the Golden glob awards were a matter of conce
rn for me and I was shattered when I heard Oscar announcement. I consider myself as a great critic of the movies (unfortunately, this is a thought that has occured only to me so far !! Readers discretion is strongly advised). And in my evaluation this movie did not deserve all the accolades that it receive now. I have seen many great movies, that has left everlasting impressions in me, in terms of both techical brilliance and substance. I havent seen the cinematographic excellence of 'Lord of the Rings' or musical brilliance of 'Titanic' or beauty of script as in 'A beautiful mind' or Directorial touch of 'Saving Private Ryan' in Slumdog millionaire. It did not leave any images once I left the theatre other than some disturbing realities of child abuse. But that is not the opinion of many film pundits. So there must be some problem with my way of evaluation.
rn for me and I was shattered when I heard Oscar announcement. I consider myself as a great critic of the movies (unfortunately, this is a thought that has occured only to me so far !! Readers discretion is strongly advised). And in my evaluation this movie did not deserve all the accolades that it receive now. I have seen many great movies, that has left everlasting impressions in me, in terms of both techical brilliance and substance. I havent seen the cinematographic excellence of 'Lord of the Rings' or musical brilliance of 'Titanic' or beauty of script as in 'A beautiful mind' or Directorial touch of 'Saving Private Ryan' in Slumdog millionaire. It did not leave any images once I left the theatre other than some disturbing realities of child abuse. But that is not the opinion of many film pundits. So there must be some problem with my way of evaluation. It was a good movie with a novel story line, I do agree. But for some reasons it failed to leave anything new in my mind. The movie only helped to rekindle some old memories in me. The images of impoverished children who used to come to the sleeper compartments on Kerala express, during my many journeys to northen India. Flashing images of many instances of child abuses in different parts of India that I have witnessed. Yes, I was just a witness. I was unable to react or afraid to react in most of those situations. The events and stories that are portrayed in slumdog millionair are true to the core and deeply disturbing. All those hapless kids out there deserve few drops of tears, atleast (Thanks to my wife !!). So, what did skew my judgement??
Aha, I think I got it. 'The inconvenient truth' !! That is the issue here. The film depicts realities that I want to escape from. When you are put in a situation which you despise, and you 
are unable to do anything about it.... for me it will be an utterly unpleasant scenario. Moreover, I have seen many of similar things with my own eyes and I can relate them very well to men with flesh and blood. I have seen and appreciated movies like 'Life is beautiful' and 'Schindler list' which also picturise the dark side of life. But the difference is that, I have never been to a Concentration camp or to Nazi Germany or even talked to anyone who had been to there. I can not associate all those atrocities to real people. So while watching these movies what I felt was a 'philosophical sadness'. Deep in my mind I conviced myself that part of the movie is a figment of imagination of the writer or director. I reiterated time and again that human beings can never be so cruel. All those people and places in that movie were just characters and plot for me. But Slumdog was raw reality. Something I have seen by myself. You will forget stories and narrations but not faces and incidents in real life.
are unable to do anything about it.... for me it will be an utterly unpleasant scenario. Moreover, I have seen many of similar things with my own eyes and I can relate them very well to men with flesh and blood. I have seen and appreciated movies like 'Life is beautiful' and 'Schindler list' which also picturise the dark side of life. But the difference is that, I have never been to a Concentration camp or to Nazi Germany or even talked to anyone who had been to there. I can not associate all those atrocities to real people. So while watching these movies what I felt was a 'philosophical sadness'. Deep in my mind I conviced myself that part of the movie is a figment of imagination of the writer or director. I reiterated time and again that human beings can never be so cruel. All those people and places in that movie were just characters and plot for me. But Slumdog was raw reality. Something I have seen by myself. You will forget stories and narrations but not faces and incidents in real life. And in terms of technical excellence too, I was drawing wrong co
mparisons. I can not compare 'Dances with the wolves' to 'Shawshank redemption'. Both were good movies in their own rights, but at two different time points. Its almost like comparing the achivements of Mark Spitz to Mike Phelps. It will be erroneous to compare two individuals or events from different period of time without a defined reference point. Anyway Oscar is not an award for best movie ever made. For an unbiased judge (Like my wife), Slumdog millionaire could be the greatest movie of 2008. However, in any of the categories that it got awards, I will not consider it as the best in last 25 years not even 5 years. It got all these awards not due to the merits it holds but due to the lack of the same in its competitors (err... philosophically this is true with all awards I guess !!). By the way, I am not skeptical about the talents of the awardees here. For Eg. I love many works of A.R.Rahman and he well deserve this recognition. But I know a lot of great tunes from Rahman when compared to 'Jai ho'.
mparisons. I can not compare 'Dances with the wolves' to 'Shawshank redemption'. Both were good movies in their own rights, but at two different time points. Its almost like comparing the achivements of Mark Spitz to Mike Phelps. It will be erroneous to compare two individuals or events from different period of time without a defined reference point. Anyway Oscar is not an award for best movie ever made. For an unbiased judge (Like my wife), Slumdog millionaire could be the greatest movie of 2008. However, in any of the categories that it got awards, I will not consider it as the best in last 25 years not even 5 years. It got all these awards not due to the merits it holds but due to the lack of the same in its competitors (err... philosophically this is true with all awards I guess !!). By the way, I am not skeptical about the talents of the awardees here. For Eg. I love many works of A.R.Rahman and he well deserve this recognition. But I know a lot of great tunes from Rahman when compared to 'Jai ho'. It will remain as 'just another' movie for me which I may never watch again. Call me a coward or an escapist, but the fact of the matter is that "reality stinks"!!.
Picture of the girl: www.stolenchildhood.net
Ok, i agree that i cried, but that was just few drops and i never knew that my husband was staring at me than watching the film . But not to the extend of attracting "the attention of some sleepy heads in the neighboring seats".
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