Trivia: Salim Malik’s Ringtone From Slumdog Millionaire, Plus Slumdog Soundtrack On Sale Today For $5
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
[The following post contains minor spoilers forSlumdog Millionaire]
When I watch movies and television shows, I’m almost always drawn to their soundtracks, especially when I feel they enhance the film. But for some reason, more than just the songs that play underneath the dialogue catch my attention; I also find myself obsessed with the little tiny bits of music that you would never find on a film soundtrack. In general, these obsessions lead to a certain degree of insanity, as the music often can’t be tracked down, and when it finally is, it usually can’t be purchased.
One such piece of music played about 2/3rds of the way throughSlumdog Millionaire. In the following clip, Salim Malik gets a phone call from his boss:
For reasons passing understanding, I needed to know what that ringtone was (especially because that phone and that ringtone specifically return later on in the film). So the other day, I sent out aTwitter requestto see if anybody knew what it was. To my pleasant surprise, I got replies fromseveraldifferentpeople, explaining that the song was from the Indian filmSwades.
Swadesis a 2004 film written, produced, and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and starring Shahrukh Khan. The film follows the epic journey of Mohan Ghargava, a NASA scientist, who returns to India to help his childhood nanny move to the U.S. However, the more he learns about the village that she lives in, the more it changes him and his attitudes towards his home country.
The film won ahefty number of awardsand is critically well-regarded; BBC Shropshire claimed it was one of thebest films of the yearand Slashfilm podcastlistener, John, wrote in to say that “This is seriously one of the best movies I have ever seen, Hollywood or Bollywood, and likeSlumdog Millionaire, it is set in the backdrop of eye-opening visuals of the ‘real’ India, with an extremely, extremely uplifting message.”
Originally I had rented this film from Netflix to watch it in preparation for writing this article, but the film’s 3.5 hour runtime was too daunting for me this week. I still plan on watching it, but it will take awhile. In the meantime, have any of you seenSwades? If so, let me know what you thought in the comments.
Here’s a clip from the soundtrack ofSwadescomposed by A.R. Rahman, who also did theSlumdogsoundtrack. I guess he put his own Swades theme as the ringtone inSlumdogas an in-joke/reference:
I know a lot of you were on the edge of your seat about this question, so now you may be at peace with this knowledge (plus, you can also use Salim Malik’s ringtone as your own, if you want!).
For the rest of you who don’t care about any of that, you should probably be aware thatAmazon MP3has as one of their Friday deals the now-Golden-Globe-award-winningSlumdog Millionairesoundtrackon sale for the insane price of $5(go here for my mini-review).
If you liked any of the music you heard during the movie, I can pretty much guarantee that this is worth the purchase, especially for $5. I’m pretty sure the sale only lasts through the end of today, so don’t miss your chance. Thanks to all the readers who sent this in!
You can reach David Chen at Davechensemail(at)gmail.com, where you can send in esoteric requests and cool finds for obscure soundtrack knowledge. You can alsofollow him on Twitteror onTumblr.
