"Slumdog Millionaire" by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan: a review

Slumdog Millionaire is a film that was released in January 2009, and fast became one of the best films of the decade. The film picked up eight Oscars including one for best picture and one for best director Danny Boyle. It rapidly escalated to the ‘must see’ film of the year. It is British-Indian film that is based loosely on the novel written by Vikas Swarup in 2005.

The story itself was set and filmed in Mumbai in India and focuses on one young man by the name of Jamal K Malik, played by Dev Patel. This young Indian man, who is a ‘slumdog’ orphan from Mumbai, participates in the Indian version of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’. He is lucky enough to be one question away from twenty million rupees before time ran out for the day and they had to return the next day.

In the interim the host of the show accuses Jamal of cheating. His reasons are not clear, but maybe due to jealousy he reports Jamal to the authorities. And so, subsequently Jamal is arrested and held by the police in custody while they question him. He is suspected of cheating and the question is asked how he could have the intelligence to answer so many of the show’s questions correctly with the education and background he comes from.

During the questioning more is found out about Jamal’s life up to this point. From here the movie concentrates on various flashbacks from Jamal’s life and form the majority of the action from then on. The scenes are packed full of action and drama. As more is learnt about his past, so a love story takes shape. It is discovered at this time about his relationship with a girl who he never really had a chance to spend any time with due to circumstances at that time.

He loses contact with the girl he loved and lost, named Latika. He strives to one day be reunited with her after being separated when young. Appearing in the show could be the opportunity he needs to get back in touch with her, just maybe. Finally, the movie tries to shed light on his motivation behind appearing on the show and his reasons behind it. Is he a cheat or is just his destiny?

Often described as a feel good movie, there are a number of emotional and disturbing scenes throughout with a porcelain doll collection in the background. Particularly interesting about the film was that the child actors were actually real slum kids. Reports were rife during the making of the movie that they weren’t paid enough for their roles and still to this day live in their slums.

The movie itself moves along a good pace despite it’s length and combines enough adventure like a Betty Boop collectible, sadness, drama and love into that two hours in order to captivate the audience throughout. The ending of the film was original and different. Essentially the film has moments of fun, but relies on a sense of optimism and uplifting and emotional a scenes to carry it through to the conclusion.