Review of Slumdog Millionaire (2008) by Callum D — 29 Dec 2013

In this media-saturated age, it really has become somewhat of a rarity that a film (no matter the country of origin) affords its audience with the opportunity to look into a world that is as honest (as possible) as it is poignant. On one hand, I did feel that this story was a particularly ingenious spin on Dickensian and Greek narratives that are fit for today's audiences. On the other hand-however-I do have this leeching sense of cynicism that whispers to me that this was a tad too schmaltzy for my taste; but then again, one really cannot question on whether the events that unfold in this love story could actually happen. It is a movie, after all.

Directed by Danny Boyle (Sunshine/ Trainspotting) and the Simon Beaufoy adaptation from the best-selling book 'Q&A' authored by Vikas Swarup, the story is centered around 18 year-old Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), an uneducated kid from the desolate and dank slums of Mumbai is one question away from winning the top prize of 20 MILLION Rupees (roughly the equivalent of $322,980 US dollars) in India's version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire." With that built-up excitement, there's just one roadblock in Jamal's path to fame and riches: the powers the be (the host of said game show) had Jamal arrested under the suspicion of cheating. From there, the Mumbai police had the poor kid brutally interrogated for the next few hours only to accidentally rendering him unconscious.

The following morning, his interrogation continues in an albeit more passive fashion through an interview conducted personally by the police commissioner of Mumbai (Ifran Khan). Whilst Jamal's criminal inquiry is going on, the commissioner plays a tape from last night's "Millionaire" and asks him to reveal his knowledge on where he got each answer from. In a form of desperation to prove his innocence, Jamal spills his guts and tells his life story leading up to events of his appearance on the game show. From there, he tells of his strange adventures that he had while growing up in the slums with his brother Salim (Madhur Mittal). Jamal and Salim's adventures that they went through ranged from surviving ultra-right winged extremist gangs, train hopping across India, to Jamal loving and loosing of Latika, a childhood friend that he loved since loosing his mother.

As this interview unfolds-and to the bemusement of the police commissioner-his true motive for being on the game show goes well beyond the seemingly petty pursuit of fame and fortune. Their final question to him was this: why? Its not that Jamal cheated because he really didn't. He's definitely had a rough life, indeed. He knows the answers not because he randomly acquired them through his current profession as an assistant phone basher at an English outsourcing facility for mobile phones. The plain and simple answer is that he's lived each answer.

Aside from my aforementioned reservations about the conventionality of the love story-a schmalzy puff piece that was perfectly tailored for Academy voters. From some certain recollections, I described the movie as a 'flavor of the month' movie that will push the status over onto an ironic sense of over-saturation. I recently saw the movie again for the first time in a couple of years, and I have to admit that this movie-despite what I felt-still holds up pretty well. I think that the tried and true rags to riches love story actually elevated this Bollywood tale in almost every way-from the visuals, the music, to even the flawless direction. What's more to rave is that there's no eyre of pretentiousness that typically comes with movies of this ilk.