Slumdog Millionaire: The Review (Spoiler)

Wow. What a film. A hot score by A.R.Rahman. A looong list of awards and an international following makes this a definite "one to watch."

Indian "Slum" films seem to be rising in number and I'm not complaining. Each one shows the real Mumbai from a different viewpoint. Slumdog differs. How?

Instead of just showing the gritty streets of Mumbai, the poverty, the life of children, gangs, etc Slumdog is intertwined with a story.

Not just any story either, one that people in over 100 countries will be able to understand/laugh at. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a teen who grew up in the slums, is accused of cheating on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

The first scenes show Jamal being tortured by the police in an attempt to get a confession out of him. After allowing a few beatings and an electric shock, the head police officer, played by Irrfan Khan, tries the more diplomatic approach of listening.

He asks Jamal what the whole country is thinking; how can a slum boy know the answers to questions that doctors and lawyers can't even answer? Questions such as "What does Lord Rama hold in his right hand," and "Who's face is on the $100 bill?" Jamal goes through each question with a backstory of how he knows the answer.

For those that haven't seen the film I won't go into the most important question regarding the Three Muskateers.

Aside from explaining how he knows the answers, Jamal's interesting life story is also inevitably told. You begin to question, would a slum teen actually know the answers to the questions on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire or is the whole story slightly far-fetched. Is he really cheating and just lying his way through the police interrogation? If you pick a random slum teenager they probably could answer some of the questions posed with the same logic used by young Jamal.

The fact that the above, although a major coincidence, could happen makes me love this underdog story. The fluke, the backstories and the love tale allow this film to stand next to some of my other slum favourites namely, D, Salaam Bombay, Traffic Signal and Chandni Bar.

The one qualm I do have with this film is that I like many others would like to know how much "directing" Danny Boyle actually did. I believe Loveleen Tandan did a great job as Co-Director and the Danny Boyle name has helped give this film the publicity it needs in the UK and US.