Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Watch this funny parody of Slumdog Millionaire. Hilarious!

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Slumdog Millionaire is the top dog at the 81st Annual Academy Awards on Sunday night as it swept away 8 wins out of 10 nominations including the Best Picture and Best Director.

The others awards Slumdog Millionaire has taken include Best Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Score and Original Song.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, as expected, managed to pick up three technical awards including Art Direction, Makeup and Visual Effect while The Dark Knight won two awards including Sound Editing and Best Supporting Actor for the late Heath Ledger.

View the Full List of Oscars 2009 Winners

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Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British film that is set and filmed in India and is nominated for 10 Oscars. Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and exceeds everyone’s expectations.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Dev Patel in "Slumdog Millionaire"

Jamal Malik is interrogated by the police for cheating as he has made it through to the final question in the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? because he is just an 18-year-old "Chaiwalah" (tea boy) who is neither knowledgeable or lucky.

As Jamal tells the inspector of how he answered each of the question, there are constantly flashbacks of his childhood in the slums of Mumbai, Dharavi. Jamal and his brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal) were orphans after their mother has died during the Hindu-Muslim riots, they befriended an orphan girl Latika (Freida Pinto). While living in the trash, Maman the gangster offers them two bottles of Coke, but little did they know he collects street children to train them as beggars with Salim being groomed to become part of Maman’s operation.

When Salim realizes how Maman blinded the children who know how to sing and that his brother is a talented singer, he pours acid into one of Maman’s men and the three children try to escape, but only Jamal and Salim manage to escape with Latika purposely left behind by Salim.

The brothers earn a living by selling goods, pretending to be tour guides at Taj Mahal, stealing and pickpocketing. Jamal insists to go back to Mumbai in order to locate Latika. When they find her, she is working as a dancer in a brothel. The brothers attempts to rescue Latika but Maman and his men intrude causing Salim to draw a gun and kill Maman.

As Salim joins a rival gang, Javed, Jamal works in a call centre as an assistant. Jamal enters the popular game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? as he knows Latika will be watching. In the final question, Jamal uses his phone-a-friend lifeline to call Salim, but Latika answers his phone since Salim has earlier given his phone to Latika. Latika does not know the answer but Jamal manages to guess the answer (Aramis) correctly while Salim’s deed is discovered by Javed’s men and is shot to death by Javed’s men after Salim has shot Javed.

Overall, the movie is magnificent and it creates a whole new perspective in the movie arena. Slumdog Millionaire is definitely breathless and simply breathtaking. I think that it can win an Oscar for the Best Picture. It is written.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.

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Slumdog Millionaire tells a story of how impoverished Indian teen Jamal Malik became a contestant on the Hindi version of “Who Wants to be A Millionaire?

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