Review of Slumdog Millionaire (2008) by Don T — 21 Nov 2015

I finally saw this movie 7 years after it won best picture. I was in no rush because the Academy had, in my opinion, been picking either pretentious films that actors and directors like more than audiences do, or preachy movies that force-feed us some tenet of liberalism... not too interested, thanks. However, this movie was a pleasant surprise.

I loved the premise: the story of how a boy's difficult life provided him the knowledge he needed to answer the questions on a game show, and how no one could comprehend how an uneducated street kid could be so successful in such a game. In fact, the disbelief was so strong that the local police abduct and torture him to get him to confess and tell them how he "cheated". Instead they listen in amazement as he goes through each question telling them the events of his life that helped him come up with the correct answer. These stories detail the hardship and outright horror of being an orphan in the slums of India, or a slumdog as they're known locally. Most of them are heartbreaking, but all of them are interesting, and it is clever how they fall into place in the larger narrative of the game show questions.

However, it is not just the story of a kid who grew up with bad things happening to him and around him. It is also the story of real, hard-fought, time-tested love. How a young boy helped a young girl out of the rain, by letting her sleep in an outhouse with him and then loved her forever. It's a story of how a brother can save a life and ruin it at the same time. It is the story of failure and redemption, and a story of drive and purpose. It may be a bit melodramatic in places, and a bit too convenient in others, but it is definitely worth watching, and probably worthy of the Best Film Oscar it won.