Boards

was a perfectly fine character....especially the visual style that follows him...the constant blur that emphasises how he is not of this world anymore...how his obsession with the sun has obfuscated any of his rational thought processes and so all surrounding him gets englufed in an other worldly haze.......it got a teeny bit slashy..maybe....but it still came up smelling of roses...

since it's been a while and I never sat down to formalise my thoughts, but what struck me most about the film was its depiction of the perversity, if not the depravity, of the different economic systems which define the narrative's events.

Obviously, there's the illustrations of the extreme poverty and appalling living conditions in the Juhu slums which stand in stark contrast not just with the wealth of the gameshow host (and a few other affluent figures that appear in the narrative) but also the relatively secure and comfortable working conditions of the call centre workers (how often would it occur to someone to think of a person working in a call centre as well off?).

But it's probably the way that this contrast is shown alongside the perverse and exploitative nature of a series of "alternative" economies that makes it most interesting and effective to my mind. E.g. the organised begging racket, which sees a thug rounding up street kids in order to train them in the art of begging and purposefully maiming them in order to increase their income potential; and the gangster economy of drugs, prostitution, violence and assassination. When the two brothers extract themselves from Maman's racket, they eke out a living through a series of scams and hustles, and the only paths to anything more than bare subsistence are sexual bondage to and willing complicity with gangsters or fairytale success in the perverse economy of a gameshow.

In many ways, what's interesting is that in the film there's no depiction of what we usually think of as "normal" economic activity, which is as much as to imply that these perverse, exploitative economies are hardly aberrations but merely the most obvious instances of systemic corruption. In this respect, it's interesting to note that the one "legitimate" capitalist (the gameshow host/producer) has no qualms about trying to cheat his trader and to scam and short-change his customers by fixing the show.

So, there's a bit of detail, I guess, though not yet very well organised...

but in the alternate ending, I think Mark Strong and Cillian Murphy sit down and have a conversation, rather than try and kill each other.

but in the alternate ending, I think Mark Strong and Cillian Murphy sit down and have a conversation, rather than try and kill each other.

but I'm not wearing the self-righteous rap.

While we're at it, I might as well up my original complaint: "manipulate the audience's emotions"? Can you get any more banal a form of criticism? I s'pose, at least, you didn't accuse it of being "so formulaic"...

so he could get more money begging, as it was he chose to drive an autorickshaw his maiming made his job harder and he was angry.

He also pointed out to me a couple of other people who were begging who had had their begging ability enhanced by maiming, its not nice and it is a practice that i am sure that india wants to try to stop, putting it in this film was not done badly i thought, i saw this film with my son and i think it let him see how some people in deprived areas, actually have the ability to compete on equal terms taken away from them physically....still, in this era.

the fact that just a few might have this happen to them is terrible enough, and since it is something that happens to a few i see no problem with depicting it, its a horrendous thing as is untouchability, im so glad that there is a woman from this 'caste' is prospectively going to do well in the indian election.

I thought the depiction of the slum seemed to be sort of right, i remember being in 'old delhi' and feeling guilty that i gingerly picked my steps through a slum i had wondered into, to me it was like hell, but the people weren't hostile or nasty or anything, there were lots of kids playing n stuff. (the film managed to convey well the close proximity you have with excrement in slummy places, I thought that whole scene with the loo and the celebrity was brilliant)

and what a pity