A R Rahman: "Jai Ho"

You can’t beat a bit of Bhangra. Its foot-stomping medley of dance moves and pomp work like an Eastern flamenco, seducing all but the most rigid of spoilsports. How well that translates to the big screen, though, has always been a bit more subjective in the eyes of the caramel corn crowd. America’s passion for Indian cinema ranged from a tongue-in-cheek Simpsons’ sketch to the cheek-in-cheek Girly Man —until, that is, Slumdog Millionaire hit the festival circuit and went on to snatch all those Academy nominations. It should really have been released as Cashcow Megabucks given the rate it’s swept through the Hollywood money pit, but Danny Boyle’s latest odyssey has well and truly been let off its decorated leash. And while the gunshots and cash registers of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” will no doubt help sell it to the Scarface demographic, original composer A R Rahman cleared the greatest hurdle in funneling the sounds of Dharavi into celluloid.

His themes for Slumdog covered all the necessary bases—slow kiss, turncoat, confession—but it was this closing piece that really lit the dark cinema when I caught it a couple of Saturdays ago. Coming straight after the slowed down Crocodile Dundee of the delicate train station finale, “Jai Ho” finds the film’s cast signing off in an epic Mumbai dance number, weaving round elements of rap and Eurocheese just to make the translators work overtime. It’s got all the drive and vigor you’d expect from a major Tinseltown juggernaut, matched with the frenetic zest and rampant glee of red-hot Bollywood in full flight. As Dev Patel and his co-stars leapt round the screen in excitement and stoked the film’s lasting light warm glow, the music marked one of the few times in my life I’ve seen a film audience stay to the end. The End.