Slumdog Millionaire

A movie you might be interested in, Slumdog Millionaire, is being released in major cities today and most other North American cities throughout the next few weeks. The plot might sound corny to the skeptical (it involves some romance), but if it’s as well done as it seems to be from the trailer, it could be one of those poignant, moving films that only come along once every few years (in the genre of Born into Brothels). The trailer gives away a lot, so if you like to be surprised, don’t watch all (or any) of it. (The skeptic in me is hoping it’s not a touristy, voyeuristic ride into areas that most movie-goers will only go to through the movie…)

An interesting theme that came up in the making of the movie is product displacement. Apparently Mercedes and “a well known soft drinks company” objected to their products being shown in a slum and demanded that their logos be removed, which was done digitally, costing tens of thousands of pounds. Yet, the Benz folks were perfectly happy having their logo appear on a gangster’s car when it was parked outside his mansion. So it’s ok to engage in mass (probably violent) crime as long as you’re wealthy. Mercedes will hang with you. But if you want to try to earn an honest living, and just can’t make it out of poverty- sorry, no such luck. [Timesonline]

The car manufacturer and a well-known soft drinks company believed that their brands would be sullied if their products were shown in one of Bombay’s shantytowns. [Timesonline]

Hey, Mercedes and fizzy drink company- you may have missed one of the points of the movie-you know, here’s the human struggle and spirit, from the eyes of someone you didn’t realize you had so much in common with??… Never mind. (I’m trying to not let their stupidity ruin the movie for me.)

More absurdity, synopsis and release dates below the fold.

The film-makers also had to go to absurd lengths to disguise the logo of a global drinks conglomerate, Boyle said. “There is a scene where the kids are on a rubbish dump and they get offered these bottles of, er, popular fizzy drink. Not only were we not allowed to use their name, basically we had to paint over the label on the bottle as well. So we ended up paying tens of thousands of pounds painting out these symbols, which are meant to unite the world, aren’t they? I’d better not say any more about that or I’ll get in trouble.”

Synopsis:

The story of Jamal Malik (Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Pinto), the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions. Each chapter of Jamal’s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show’s seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out… [imdb]

Check it out if you’re interested:

Week #1: Wednesday, Nov. 12

1 Los Angeles
2 New York
3 Chicago
4 San Francisco
5 Washington D.C.
6 Toronto

Week #2: Friday, Nov. 21st

7 Boston
8 Dallas/Ft. Worth
9 Philadelphia
10 San Diego
11 Seattle
12 Denver
13 Baltimore
14 Minneapolis
15 Phoenix
16 Vancouver

Week #3: Wednesday, Nov. 26th

No new markets

Week #4: Friday, Dec. 5th

17 Atlanta
18 Detroit
19 Indianapolis

Week #5: Friday, Dec. 12th

20 Sacramento
21 St. Louis
22 Austin
23 Milwaukee
24 Hartford/New Haven
25 Madison
26 Ann Arbor

Week #6: Friday, Dec. 19th

27 Houston
28 Miami/Ft. Lauderdale
29 Kansas City
30 Cleveland
31 Columbus
32 Orlando
33 Charlotte
34 New Orleans
35 Louisville
36 Portland
37 Rochester
38 Salt Lake/Boise
39 Honolulu
40 Albany
41 Albuquerque
42 Boca Raton/W. Palm Beach
43 Cincinnati
44 Dayton
45 Nashville
46 Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill
47 Asheville
48 Charlottesville
49 Lansing
50 Northampton/Springfield
51 Montreal

Week #7: Friday, Dec. 26th

52 Buffalo
53 Fresno
54 Las Vegas
55 Tampa/St. Pete
56 Champaign/Decatur/Springfield
57 El Paso
58 Harrisburg, PA
59 Memphis
60 Norfolk/Newport News
61 Oklahoma City
62 Omaha
63 Providence
64 Richmond
65 San Antonio
66 Spokane
67 Tulsa
68 Baton Rouge
69 Birmingham
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80 Anchorage
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82 Ft. Myers
83 Gainesville
84 Ithaca
85 Jacksonville
86 Portland, ME
87 Santa Fe
88 Tallahassee
89 Calgary
90 Edmonton
91 Halifax
92 Kitchener
93 Ottawa
94 St. John
95 Victoria
96 Winnipeg