The 81st Academy Award (2009) honored Slumdog Millionaire with the Best Picture Oscar. A decision that frankly speaking, I resented back then and that, although much less now, still keeps me a bit biased today.
Not that it is this movie’s fault. Slumdog is such a fantastic movie as is the story told in it! The problem resides in the fact that in my personal liking, I had three stronger candidates for that award: Frost/Nixon, Milk, and my utmost favorite, The Reader.
Although it should suffice that a movie has been nominated to an award as to make it recognized for its standard of excellence, such excellence seems to vary from year to year; whereas in some years all are extraordinary, in some others, one ends up wishing the category gets declared deserted. A result you will never see happening in this business!
But back to Slumdog, it has a well paced written script that absolutely deserved its award as best adapted screenplay, the children turned into actors stole the heart of the viewers, the cinematography was breathtaking (another award), both the score and the original song (two more awards), although not my cup of tea, gave soul to the story and the quality of film editing was flawless in its back and forth design of scenes.
All in all, the overall quality of the movie is superb! This takes me to the most deserving award: Danny Boyle winning the Best Director’s category. Was Boyle’s vision and commitment what made of Slumdog Millionaire a jewel, which in turn gave to Bollywood a more robust platform to take their film making industry into more respected frontiers.