Slumdog Millionaire: Best Movie in Years Should Sweep the Oscars

Slumdog Millionaire, the independent film that has everyone buzzing, made it big through word of mouth and by winning four Golden Globes, including Best Picture. Slumdog Millionaire will go down as one of my top 10 favorite movies of the past 10 years. Click here to view all the Slumdog Millionaire movie trailers and clips from IMDb.

Why Slumdog Millionaire Should Sweep the Oscars

Slumdog Millionaire is woven with all the diverse fabrics that are central to the good and bad of life: human rights, street smarts of disadvantaged youth, corruption of government and law enforcement officials, torture from dishonesty and greed, family devotion, best friends, courageous heroes, and unconditional true love.

The cast that won an ensemble Best Picture Golden Globe was made up of captivating unknown actors and the children were endearing, heart-grabbing characters that stole the picture:

Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail plays the Youngest Salim

Ayush Mahesh Khedekar plays the Youngest Jamal

Rubiana Ali plays the Youngest Latika

Tanay Hemant Chheda plays the Middle Jamal

Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala plays the Middle Salim

Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar plays the Middle Latika

Dev Patel plays the Older Jamal

Madhur Mittal plays the Older Salim

Freida Pinto plays the Older Latika

Anil Kapoor plays the bad guy host of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, Prem Kumar

Slumdog Millionaire Nominated for Best Screenplay Oscar, Simon Beaufoy

The script was out of this world, centered around the internationally famous game show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. More engaging, is that the script takes us into what most us felt was the unknown slumdog world of Mumbai, India. I almost threw up all my buttered popcorn when I saw the torture scene with the little boy who couldn't sing. The plot delivers, with a perfect balance of humor and depression, the fateful stories of a young boy's acquisition of trivial knowledge that enabled him to win the game show. The young slumdog is tortured and interrogated by officials who believe he was cheating to win the millions. Slumdog Millionaire is also a hopelessly romantic love story as Jamal relentlessly pursues Latika throughout his whole life. Young Jamal wrestles with the bad and good family values of his brother Salim, and in the end, despite all the slumdog's odds, the good prevails.

Slumdog Millionaire Nominated for Best Director Oscar, Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan

Slumdog Millionaire Nominated for Best Cinematography Oscar, Anthony Dod Mantle

Slumdog Millionaire Nominated for Best Editing Oscar, Chris Dickens

The directing and superb editing delivers graphic, fast paced scenes that leave you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next to the slumdogs of Mumbai. The transition of characters from the youngest, to the middle, and to the older brothers, Jamal and Salim, and to Jamal's love of his life, Latika, was flawless. The cinematography captures the most vivid images of India's vast slums, the horrid living conditions of the slumdogs, and the dichotomous beauty of India in the torture scenes with the poet and the child singers. Simply outstanding!

Slumdog Millionaire Nominated for Best Sound Oscar, Best Sound Editing Oscar, Best Original Song Oscar for Jai Ho, Best Original Song Oscar for O Saya, and Best Original Score Oscar

The music of Slumdog Millionaire was beautifully applied in different genres to the intense scenes, the lively funny scenes, and the serious love scenes. The music includes the song O Saya by A. R. Rahman and M.I.A. The songs and scores of Slumdog Millionaire are a sensitive, educational mixture of cultural tunes with contemporary tunes. The soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire should be on everyone's MP3 playlist.

My Oscar prediction is that Slumdog Millionaire will sweep the 10 categories for which it was nominated. The 81^st Annual Academy Awards will air Sunday, February 22 on ABC with host Hugh Jackman. It should promise to be the night of a lifetime for a lot of Indian humanitarians.

Sources:

Slumdog Millionaire Official Site

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/slumdogmillionaire/

Slumdog Millionaire on IMDb (2008)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/