Hindi Cinema

"With a stunning lack of plausibility you see the slum child Jamaal grow into a refined public schoolboy who must surely be eating cucumber sandwiches for lunch. India’s wannabe wealthy — billionaires among them — would slice their fingers to boast such a sophisticated son. For that accent alone, they would throw in their toes too." - Vinay | विनय via Bookmarklet

"Slumdog has been so insistently hyped as an uplifting experience ("the feel-good film of the decade!" screams the British poster) that it is also, by now, a movie that pre-empts debate. It comes with a built-in, catchall defense—it's a fairy tale, and any attempt to engage with it in terms of, say, its ethics or politics gets written off as political correctness." - Vinay | विनय via Bookmarklet

"Coming to his latest mediocrity Slumdog Millionaire, a very tedious rags-to-riches tale of a slum kid who makes his millions on a TV Quiz show, the film is probably most closely related to Trainspotting replete with a shit-pot dive. The biggest problem is that it exists beneath any kind of debate. Audiences have been divided into people who think it’s a masterpiece and others who feel that Boyle exploits third world poverty. To be fair to the director, I do not think he is consciously exploiting poverty nor tarnishing India’s image despite Armond White (one of the few western critics who seem to have seen through the film) calling him a “poverty pimp with an avid”. But the sad truth is that despite its acclaim, popularity and awards it is plain ordinary. It lacks any quality and is just simply innocuous. It is neither good nor does it have the personality to be bad." - Vinay | विनय via Bookmarklet

The sad part is that Naseer and Paresh get less than 5 minutes of screen time combined. - Vinay | विनय

Haven't seen a better Hindi thriller in ages. - Vinay | विनय

"I can’t watch Jaane Tu ... Ya Jaane Na,” reveals Abbas Tyrewala, the director of the film. The debutante director says he’s not trying to make headlines with a controversial-sounding statement. It’s just that, he says, every time he sees the flick, he feels that “each frame” could have been better." - Vinay | विनय via Bookmarklet

It's refreshing to see him admit to that. But then the movie is already a hit and he has nothing to lose. Regardless, that honesty will make me look forward to his future movies. - Vinay | विनय