Thoughts provoked

Slumdog Millionaire, the British-made film set in Mumbai which has become this year's word-of-mouth hit, continued its unstoppable rise. Danny Boyle's rags-to-riches flick, which is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize nominated novel Q and A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup , and has already won four Golden Globes earlier t his month, recently had its Indian premiere in Mumbai. It is one of five films in contention for best picture. The others are The Reader; Milk, the true story of America's first openly gay politician; Frost/Nixon, the dramatisation of Sir David Frost's televised showdown with former US President Richard Nixon; and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a fantasy starring Brad Pitt as a man who ages backwards, which leads the race with 13 nominations. Each of the films has a best director nomination. "To win so many nominations is unbelievable and for two Indians to be in the nominations