Slumdog Millionaire
For some reason, when selecting film references to promote Danny Boyle’s latest film, it was decided that his name should be followed, in parentheses, by titles such as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. Yet in many respects, Slumdog Millionaire is more akin to Boyle’s 2005 feature: Millions.
That’s not to detract from the other films, which are both very good, but by focusing on them as aides de memoirs for Boyle’s work, Slumdog may be deprived of the wider audience it deserves.
Young Jamal Malik (Dev Patel – Skins), finds himself detained and questioned by police, after a dream run on the Hindi version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”. Being an uneducated boy from the slums, the show’s producers are very suspicious about his ability to answer so many questions correctly. In the style of the show itself, the film commences with a question for the audience, suggesting that Malik’s good fortune is the result of one of four options. But which could it be?
The answer is revealed in a series of flashbacks spanning Malik’s childhood, as one of Mumbai’s impoverished Muslim minority living in Dharavi, orphaned in a racial attack, and forced, along with his brother, to become streetwise in order to survive. This is a touching, and at times humorous journey (Anil Kapoor gives a brilliantly cheesy performance as the host of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” ).
Also noteworthy is the work of Loveleen Tandan, who co-directed the film. She also worked on the excellent Anglo-Indian story, Brick Lane, as well as being a casting director for Monsoon Wedding.
Boyle has turned out to be a most versatile Director. Part drama, part crime story, part romance, part epic, Slumdog Millionaire isn’t an entirely realistic story (nor is it intended to be), and it has been somewhat overrated. But it is a beautiful and entertaining feature – colourful, and engaging, with a storyline whose broad scope (from a childhood in the slums of Mumbai to a closing Bollywood sequence) succeeds thanks to Boyle’s pacy direction of Simon Beaufoy’s well-anchored tale.