A still from “Slumdog Millionaire” shows Jamal, played by Dev Patel, (L) answering questions in the life-changing “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” contest

This year’s best picture Oscar winner is quintessential Hollywood – as irresistible, and nutritious, as a fast cooking hamburger .

It’s kind of like eating fast food. It has a wonderfully pleasurable flavor during consumption, as if some great desire has finally been satiated, some great dream finally fulfilled. And afterwards, there is a concocted, plastic rush of satisfaction of a kind you can’t really get in any other way.

But after the feeling wears off, you are left with only emptiness, remembering the greatness of the moment, but straining to pinpoint what exactly made it so great.

And, it gives you indigestion.

In any case, “Slumdog Millionaire” is the riveting story of Jamal, a boy who grows up in the desperate poverty of the Mumbai slums, and his quest to find the woman he’s destined to love. It follows his supersonic rise to national fame and unimagined wealth. He does this by means of that ultra-modern, all-American source of ultimate salvation – the game show. After just answering a few questions, Jamal is propelled into a new world of money and love where all his dreams are fulfilled.

The film is the darling of critics and filmmakers in the West. It has snagged a 94 percent fresh rating on rottentomatoes.com and won a lifetime’s collection of prestigious awards, including the Big One, the Academy Award for Best Picture.

It has done fabulously at the box office - US$345 million worldwide so far, which is a dream run for an Independent UK film made for only $15 million. It was doing very well before its Best Picture Oscar win, and afterwards saw a resurgence of interest around the world.

It has inspired much deserved praise by the critics. Simon Weaving of Screenwize says, “Occasionally, far too occasionally, a film comes along that once again reminds you of the power of the cinematic experience: how movement, composition, light, color and music can be stunningly shaped to create the most exquisite drama.”

I agree with Weaving. If you allow the movie to take you where it wants, its carefully constructed drama and all its flashing lights have the power to give you an emotional high and a feeling of euphoria like only Hollywood, and fast food, know how to do.

Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal goes so far as to call it “the film world’s first globalized masterpiece.”

A masterpiece? Well… we’ll get to that in a bit.

On the negative side, Indian critics and filmmakers criticize the movie’s lack of sensitivity toward poverty in India. It exploits, many say, the slums of Mumbai and the two child actors they took from them for its own voyeuristic purposes, presenting and defining a world that the filmmakers neither know nor understand, for a willing and undiscriminating audience.

I find it hard not to agree. I most sympathize, however, with Walter Chow from filmfreakcentral.net, when he calls the film a “feel-good pastiche delivered in a gaudy, candy-colored package” that promises if we would only believe, we’ll be led to “hot chicks and cold cash.”

This is what leads to the indigestion.

Don’t get me wrong, you should watch this movie. Go see it, ignore its plot holes, be swept away in its magic. One hamburger never hurt anyone. But we should also pay attention to what we’re putting into our hearts and minds. After all, we are what we watch.

The film celebrates the fated love between two of the main characters, but what real experience or connection is their love based on? And is Latika really worthy of Jamal’s love? Look at the kind of life she’d been leading and the choices she’d made.

The movie teaches that money and fame bring happiness, and family isn’t all that important. The film’s emotion climaxes as Jamal wins money and love, but what about his brother Salim? Does Salim really matter to him in the end, even a little bit?

I would not call “Slumdog Millionaire” a masterpiece. If we were to judge a film only on the quality of the filmmaking, and not consider its meaning, its impact on our inner selves, the complete experience of it, then perhaps it could be called a masterpiece. I, however, would call it a masterwork, a thrilling and beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Its great defect is its lack of consideration for the inner life of its viewers.

It is not a masterpiece just like a roller coaster ride is not the peak of human experience.

And as for the indigestion, well, just like fast food doesn’t give you all the necessary vitamins and nutrients to keep you strong and healthy, “Millionaire” isn’t substantial nourishment either. Sure tastes good, though.

By Aaron Toronto *

* “Slumdog Millionaire” is being screened at cinemas in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. See page 10 for show times.

* Aaron Toronto is an independent filmmaker working in Ho Chi Minh City