The slums of India are a harsh and unforgiving place, riddled with shady characters and corruption.
“Slumdog Millionaire,” by Danny Boyle, gives us a rare insight into the more troubled parts of the second most highly populated country of the world.
Chronologically speaking, “Slumdog Millionaire” starts somewhere near the end of its own story. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) finds himself a mere question away from striking gold while participating in India’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”
Yet little does he realize that his own code of morality and trust will lead him to trouble.Suspected of cheating, Malik must reiterate and justify how he managed to get this far on the game show.
After a gruesome and frightening display of police brutality, Malik is finally sat down and forced to go back to every question he answer correctly thus far, and explain how he got the questions right to begin with.
A series of flashbacks ensue, showing unforgettable moments in Malik’s life. These flashbacks range from cute and humorous to borderline disturbing.
The slums of India are a harsh place to grow up, especially for a poor orphan. “Slumdog Millionaire,” in an ironic twist, struck gold of its own.
It won the Oscar for Best Picture, a reward it richly deserved. The film is a powerful story and well worth watching.
The DVD however, does not hold up to “Slumdog’s” reputation.
With the relatively high cost of DVD’s right now, it is to be expected that when dropping a fifteen to twenty dollar hit on your bank account, you will walk away with something more than just a movie.
This DVD does not deliver based on these expectations in the slightest.
The movie has previews itself, and upon searching the special features of “Slumdog Millionaire,” what do you find? More previews!
That is all the movie has to offer in terms of bonus content-a plethora of previews. “Slumdog Millionaire” is a very low budget film on its own, yet the bonus features should never be this lacking.
Yes, the movie is great, and it certainly is worth watching more than once. The characters are believable, the story is powerful, and the music is superb.
But where are the storyboards and alternate endings that we got with Boyle’s previous work “28 Days Later?”
There’s not even a director’s commentary or deleted scenes. Did any thought go into the DVD’s production?
Or were they just capitalizing on its Oscar success to maximize sales? You’d best wait for a Special Edition release before adding this to your personal DVD library.
