Slumdog Millionaire is your destiny

Boston Brahmin and the Missus saw "Slumdog Millionaire" last weekend at the West Newton cinema. Loved it!

It's the kind of predestined love story, with two Dharavi urchins growing up as orphans, one brother becoming a gangster, that used to be common in the seventies Manmohan Desai or Prakash Mehra films. In fact, Zanjeer (1973) comes up as one of the answers to the TV quiz show in the movie. The main thing added by the British director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy is proper character development, fast camerawork and editing, and good production values.

You have got to see this movie -- it will make you laugh and cry the way movies no longer do. Before you go, please read this review by the Boston Globe critic. You might also want to read Simon Beaufoy's article in the Guardian after the Mumbai attacks.

Boston Brahmin's only complaint is that the movie is not widely released. In the West Newton cinema it's playing on two screens, but most cinema chains don't have it, which means most of America cannot see it (you can see the trailer on YouTube). Also, a word of caution: the first few scenes are extremely violent and disturbing, and not for children.