SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
PATHE
RELEASED 23 January 2009
Bollywood has been talked of as ‘the next big thing’ for years now, but the magical breakthrough film still hasn’t arrived. Indian movies regularly pop up in the UK top ten, but usually just for a week or two, and there seems to be zero public awareness about them. It seems there is a regular Hindi and Sikh crowd who support the movies, but the mainstream press is not interested. So it’s curious to see British director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) make a movie that takes many of the essential elements of Indian cinema and puts them into a Western-friendly concept.
18 year-old Mumbai orphan Jamal Malik is just one question away from winning 20 million rupees (a mere £259,429 to us) on India’s ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ (no Chris Tarrant here, thank god). But when the show breaks for the night, police bundle Jamal away and question and torture him overnight as they press him on how a street kid could know all the answers? For each correct answer, the police inspector discovers Jamal has a story to tell that from his life that co-incidentally gave him the knowledge he would need for the TV show. We get flashbacks at various stages in Jamal’s life, from the slums with his older brother Salim, to the dangerous local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loves and now searches for. As the film asks at the very beginning, ‘What does it take to find a lost love?’ (A) Money, (B) Luck, (C) Smarts, or (D) Destiny?
From the frantic opening scenes of ‘slumdogs’ being chased through the dirty streets of Mumbai to the drumbeating soundtrack (courtesy of composer A.R. Rahman and M.I.A.), it’s clear ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is not trying to glamorise India. There are beautiful sights, as with any great country, but the depravation isn’t brushed over (one kid refills a water bottle and tries to resell it), and the violence of gang culture and prostitution is doubly sad when orphaned kids are being sucked up into the mesh. Deliberate child disfigurment for the act of begging is particulary upsetting, especially when the kids think they’ve been delivered into a kinder life.
Colourful and vivid, the cinematography matches the amazing stories that Jamal recites. All the acting is good, but it’s the fairytale story that really holds things together. You’re never quite sure whether Jamal is telling the truth until the end, and this main storyline keeps the interest high, as if the segments of Jamal’s life weren’t thrilling and appalling enough on their own.
This is probably Danny Boyle’s best film since 1996’s ‘Trainspotting’. I may have said that about two of his other recent movies (‘28 Days Later’, ‘Sunshine’), but this is definitely an all-round crowd-pleaser that will reach out to everyone rather than just fans of horror and sci-fi. It’s impossible to imagine anyone coming out of this movie without being struck by so many great moments. Just to top things off (and ‘tip the hat’ Indian filmmaking), the cast finish the film with a thumping Bollywood dance number on a train station platform.
FOUR OUT OF FIVE