The Slum Movie That Made A Slam

Finally, after a body-numbing day of doing some house chores, I managed to fix myself for a movie-on-the-bed therapy. Past the unholy midnight hour and I was still up to see this movie that created so much fuss. If there would be things I would write about Slumdog Millionaire, I would not confine it to the obvious ones which are, needless to say, its commendations and the international noise it created. Rather, I would write something about this film that touched the core of me, something more personal. I found a CD copy (of course ‘copy’ is the keyword) on top of my TV last night from who-knows who. There it was, with a reckless label of the title in blue ink but still legibly interesting: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. As earlier said, here are the things that ran inside my head while watching it (which I have to recap after watching): 1. Parallelism of Manila and Bombay on so many things. Of course, there’s the slums (where the term ‘slumdog’ with the likes of Jamal and Salim was coined). Clair Danes knows better how to describe the kind which we have here in Manila. Syndicated begging is nothing new. I let go of a chuckle for the recruitment process the three kids have to undergo – bribed with cold Coke (I presumed) under the piercing heat of the sun. Beggar-kids need our help. :( Call centers! In the IT/BPO industry, Philippines is actually competing with India in providing the supply. And yeah, Indians can speak English too! TV game shows have been part of the Filipinos’ daily lives. These shows somehow provide people a tunnel for escape. These shows mean hope. But I still think these shows form what I call advertised gambling packaged like decent ones. 2. Motherhood and brotherhood. There’s the mother. Funny how the two boys took on the chase with the police officers with mocking ease while dreading the disciplining hands of their mother. This is the same mother who warned her kids and drove them away when there was a (unidentified) mob attack during which she was also hit and died. Salim was his brother's keeper: from the time they lost their mother up to that point when Jamal 'phoned a friend'. 3. True love waits and wins. Jamal delivering these lines is fine proof:

"Come away with me..." (I thought I heard that from Norah Jones.) "I'll wait... I love you." (He did wait for Latika at the train station!) "I joined the show because I knew you'd be watching." (That's being resourceful.)

There's this part of the movie when Jamal kissed the scar on Latika's cheek. Definitely one of my 'aawwww' moments while tears were flowing down my cheeks. I can imagine Nicki saying "Women!" with rolling eyes. It was very symbollic. He kissed her flaws. Don't you think that was really sweet? 4. God is great. Nothing is clearer than that in the movie.