Ok, so we all know this movie won Best Picture in the Golden Globes. And we all heard the great reviews. And we all had our friends tell us how great it was. So after months of prodding, I checked this one out.

Now, I had no clue what to expect and here’s what we get: a movie, partly in English, partly in Hindi (?) with subtitles about something totally alien to most westerners. A poor kid wins India’s version of “Who Wants to be a millionaire?” and the cops decide to lock him up on suspicion of cheating!

Now why in God’s name would you lock up a poor kid for getting rich on his own pluck and wit? Well, it ain’t America, kids! That’s for sure!

As if the foreign-ness of this movie (directed by Danny Boyle, who is English and was known for doing 28 Days Later and Trainspotting) totally made sense at the end when a bunch of strangers break into Indian dance at a train station.

Then it dawned on me. I had just watched my first Bollywood film! Had someone told me this (or something else about seeing a strange foreign, artsy film) I would have enjoyed it much more.

But in any case, the movie was great. It was thoroughly entertaining, though kind of strange.