"It isn't how you get there, it's what you do along the way that counts."
"It isn't how you get there, it's what you do along the way that counts."
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Director: Danny Boyle Co-Director in India: Loveleen Tandan Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy Novel: Vikas Swarup Genre: Drama – Romance Country: UK Certification: 15+ Language: English/Hindi
Jamal Malik, an 18-year-old orphan from Mumbai’s slums, is on the verge of winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’.
With only one question to go, time runs out and the show breaks up for the night. Unfortunately for Jamal, the police are waiting for him outside the studio and arrest him for cheating.
As the night wears on, Jamal is mistreated and intimidated by the police who are convinced that he has been cheating… how else could an illiterate ‘slumdog’ know the answers to the show’s questions?
When the police inspector takes over the interrogation and demands that Jamal explain how he could possibly know the answers to the questions, Jamal, who is an honest young man, tells the inspector about his life in the slums… and how the answers to each of the questions were actually important life-changing chapters in his life.
‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is one of the most poignant movies I have seen this year.
The human condition has never been so boldly and coldly dissected as in this film. From Mumbai’s richer areas to its slums, it isn’t just a world of luxury and wealth that separates Mumbai’s rich from its poor; it’s something far more frightening… it’s a total lack of compassion and understanding that seems to come with being ‘comfortable’ or ‘wealthy’, a callousness that is borne towards those who have no choice but
to live in slums under appalling conditions.
There has been a surge in nouveau riche these past few years in India, and the country is thriving… yet the quantity of slums popping up in and around cities has not decreased with the influx of jobs that have been boosting India’s economy. Why is that? A better question would be; ‘What is India doing to change things?’
In a world that is slowly becoming ‘verbally’ introvert with people no longer able to express opinions without being persecuted, how does India get away with calling the poor who live in slums… dogs? How do the police get away with mistreating the poor, and why are so many homeless children left to fend for themselves?
We are used to seeing such abject poverty and horrific living conditions in documentaries shot in countries such as Africa, countries that have yet to experience India’s booming economy because of ‘domestic’ skirmishes and natural disasters, which no doubt explains why this movie so shocked and horrified me – I wasn’t expecting to see children rummaging through garbage for a bit to eat or for items that can be resold – I wasn’t expecting to see police officers literally turning away from slum dwellers who have been set on fire, or who are systematically being executed in the streets… and I certainly wasn’t expecting to see children being mutilated so that they could be used to beg on street corners, or being groomed for the sex industry. I don’t exactly know what I WAS expecting… but it wasn’t any of this.
Truth be told, I purchased this movie from Amazon weeks ago because it won numerous Oscars and has been highly acclaimed, however, I thought, mistakenly, that it was just about a young man from India’s slums who had managed to make it big on ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’. How wrong I was…
This movie is about survival.
Jamal, who was brilliantly played by Ayush Mahesh Khedekar [child], Tanay Chheda [teen] and Dev Patel [adult], is an extraordinary character – I don’t think I’ve ever come across such a charismatic character before.
From the very moment I watched ‘little’ Jamal jump into a hole filled with human faeces and urine in order to escape the outhouse [exterior toilet] he had been locked in so that he could get a glimpse of his cricket heroes… I quite literally fell in love with him. I knew then and there that life would not crush him because he would not let it. He was, at the time, only 5 or 6 [perhaps younger], yet he already showed a resilience and resourcefulness way beyond his years.
As Jamal [adult] tells the police inspector about his life in the slums – the events that changed his life, events that are the keys to the questions he has been asked on the game show – the viewer is given a close-up look of life in… hell. I can’t go into any details here as it would ruin it for those who have not yet seen the movie, but I can say that Jamal’s life is a colourful mosaic of lies, deceit, hunger, frustration, sorrow, pain, fear… and love. Each and every event in his life has made him the person he is, and has paved the ultimate path to what appears to be a predestined fate.
What Danny Boyle (director) has managed to do, with the aid of an extremely talented cast of actors, is capture the essence of abject misery on tape and to have it spill over onto the viewer as the story unfolds. It is a dire atmosphere that greets the viewer, and it is often overwhelming. Jamal’s life story in the film is told in ‘blocks’ of information – stories within a story – not having read the book, I am uncertain who to credit for the brilliant manner in which the story unfolds… the author of the book, the screenplay writer or Boyle? Either way, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is a cinematic masterpiece.
The characters in the story have all been shaped by the world around them, and this is so obvious at times that it actually made my heart ache.
Salim [Jamal’s older brother] appears much tougher, bullish, harsher – the viewer can be forgiven for thinking that by his very nature he is a born survivor, however, looking deeper [if you dare], you can see that he’s been wounded by life and his response has been to give as good as he gets… literally. He has become street-smart, a bully, and has learned to take advantage of every situation that presents itself. In order to survive he will do anything that is required of him… for a price. These attributes are not those of a survivor, they are the attributes of a coward. Jamal has become the type of man he has always despised. Although he looks after Jamal [to a certain extent], he is more often bully than loving brother. Only on rare occasions does anyone ever get to see the ‘kinder’ Salim, the person who could have ‘existed’ full-time had the world not been such a bad place… or had he been more like Jamal and not lingered overly long on the injustices that life threw his way. In a way, Salim is the more sensitive of the two brothers; the one who has been the most touched by life and consequently lost faith in himself and humanity.
Latika, the love of Jamal’s life, the beautiful young girl who was orphaned at the same time as Jamal and Salim – Latika, standing all alone in the rain late at night, not knowing where to go or what to do… until Jamal took pity on her – Latika who remains sweetly innocent regardless of the pimp grooming her to become a high-class prostitute once he’s raked in the cash after selling her virginity to the highest bidder – Latika who is used and abused yet always remains the love of Jamal’s life. Regardless of everything she has been made to endure, she has not given in to anger… she has been subjugated not only by those who have taken advantage of her, but by life itself. Yet every time she sees Jamal, she dares to hope…
There are so many incredible characters, from the unconscionable police inspector to the not-so-nice Prem, the host of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’, who was also a slum dweller and managed to claw his way out of the gutter. It’s impossible to go through them all…
The story is incredibly fascinating, the short stories within the main story are thought-provoking and often heartbreaking, but there is always an underlying promise that everything will be made right in the end – a magical quality found within the ‘flow’ of the scenes that keeps the darkness of the ‘heavier’ scenes from setting the tone for the entire movie.
This is definitely one to watch…
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Slumdog Millionaire
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Elegantly written review. I've watched this a couple of times now and remain unconvinced. It's beautifully shot and well performed but is too glib for me. It's too black and White, everything is either good or bad with no grey areas in between. the relationship between the brothers is never explored and their respective characterisations are two dimensional at best.
Winner of 8 Acadamy Awards and 7 Baftas including Best Film and Best Director. Today is ... more
the biggest day in Jamal Malik's life. A Penniless eighteen year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai he's one question away from winning a staggering 20 million...
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Advantages: Quite thrilling, seemed pretty realistic, interesting characters, good performances, Disadvantages: Jamal maybe a little too much of a 'goody goody', subtitles might put some people off
IzzyS 20.12.2009 (20.12.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Slumdog Millionaire
Oct 29th, 2009
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