Ever creative, Danny Boyle elected to end his 2008 wonder, "Slumdog Millionaire," a raw, unstintinly realistic slice of life, with a rousing and quite unexpected production number danced by what seems like hundreds of performers, led by the film's two attractive young stars.The result: One exited the theater thoroughly exhilarated. (One negative: Boyle received well-deserved criticism when he omitted the film's choreographer, Longinus Fernandes, from the end credits.)
The number: "Jai Ho"
The composers: A. R. Rahman and Gulzar
The singers: Gulzar, Sukhwinder Singh, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Vijay Prakash and Tanvi Shah
The choreographer: Longinus Fernandes
The dancers: Dev Patel, Frieda Pinto and company.
The cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle
The film editors: Chris Dickens
The production designer: Mark Digby
This entry reminded me of one of my favorite recent musical numbers. "The Guru" was a charming romantic comedy starring Jimi Mistri and Heather Graham (not tobe confused with Mike Myers' "The Love Guru"). At thend, Mistri's faux guru and Graham's adult fiml actress with a heart of gold, along with an assembled multitude dance to an exhilerating version of "You're the One That I Want" sung in Hindi. It's left me with a big smile on my face each time I've seen it, which seems like a good measure of a musical number's success. (I'm enjoying this series of posts very much, by the way.)
ReplyDelete"The Guru" is a charming little film and Graham has been on the verge of becoming a Star with each film she makes. I keep waiting for her breakthrough to finally come. It's been a long time.
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