Thursday, March 12, 2009

Slumdog Millioaire book review

By now most of you must have watched this movie and read atleast few of the realms of newsprint and articles written about it,so its too late to write the review of the movie.So, i tried the book instead and found it......well....lets save that for the last.There's no point is reducing the limited interest you have till now!!






First start with the obvious questions.What is the differences between the Oscar winning critical acclaim and the best selling novel Q & A (yes,thats the name of the novel,not slumdog millionaire).

To start with,the main character is named Ram Mohammad Thomas(RMT),an orphan.He was named so to prevent a religious riot for him.He spent his earlier few years at a orphanage where he spent his relatively good times.

The books too starts from the dinky police cell and with the beatings.But here a lawyer (female and pretty obviously...so much for stereotypes) comes to rescue him.Then this lawyer watches the recorded and yet un-broadcasted show ,one questions at a time and unravels the mystery of Ram's life.Here Ram has won the total money one the first day itself and the producers were unable to pay any money, so the tried to prove that Ram cheated.

The story doesnt go through the linear pattern of the movie.As the questions come Ram's story jumps with it.So, in the first question he flashes back to his adolescent years where as the 2nd question takes him back to his birth and earliest memories.

If you thought SDM was fantastic then you will be stunned by this.Here the stories are more fantastic...a closet gay superstar,gay priest of a church,voodoo magic,a foreign spy,spy camera,train dacoity,murder,burglery,contract killer,ex-superstar's suicide,juvenile jail,army deserter,incest attempt...phew!!!

Salim is his friend here,one whom he doesn't meet until he gets to Agra.The story of the movie follows the novel in a different way.

The anchor of the show is a spineless man.He does whatever the producer asks him to do.Be it telling the wrong answer or reverting the final question when Ram answers it correctly. 

Also there are more women the story and the love interest is Nita, a prostitute.RMT falls in love with her and wants to win the money to free her.

The writing is surprizingly very fluent.It never staggers.Even the most incredible plot twists work like a magic.Though I knew the ending I felt my pulse quickening towards the end.The final plot twist is definitely the spoiler of the story.No wonder it was left out of the movie.

In short it is definitely an enjoyable potboiler.
The best dialogue from the book.After RMT watches a realistic movie with he says,"What is the 
point of watching a film if you can see the real thing in your neighbor's house just across 
the street?"Classic!!!

That defines the whole of SDM!!!

2 comments:

Debankar said...

goood review .... first book review i guess ... want more from u dude! SM was of course made more simple with masala and song numbers etc!

Unknown said...

of course SDm and Q & A are 2 different medium, still i think SDM surpasses Q & A