Slumdog Millionaire

Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is about to speak as the host (Anil Kapoor) holds out his arms in Slumdog Millionaire.

As Printed in The Lumberjack on Jan. 29, 2009

by Gary Sundt

For those of you who don’t know, Bollywood is the most prominent film producer in the world. Americans tend to skip out on these types of films because they’re just a little too overwrought for us, what with the cheesy acting, cheerful dance numbers and overall lackluster cinematic technique. It is in recognizing my own personal trouble with these movies that I say how much I enjoyed Danny Boyle’s homage to Bollywood cinema, Slumdog Millionaire.

The film, based on the novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup, is the story of Jamal Malik (played as an adult by Dev Patel), a Mumbai slumdog who has landed in the hot seat on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? To the surprise of the world and the chagrin of the show runners, Jamal is answering all the questions correctly. Why does an uneducated street urchin know all the answers? Is he cheating? Or is it destiny?

Jamal’s path to greatness is told in flashbacks, where he begins as a street rat who cons tourists while he discovers the realities of growing up in a tough environment, experiencing everything from young love to the depths of the criminal underworld. That love takes the form of Latika (played as an adult by Freida Pinto), a beautiful girl who teams up with Jamal and his brother, Salim (played as an adult by Madhur Mittal), after a massacre takes their parents from them. Salim, who aspires from a very young age to be a powerful individual, exacerbates Jamal’s involvement in crime.

Jamal yearns for Latika his entire life, and finally sees an opportunity to win her back while he is on the Millionaire show. But his success on the show is bringing up too many questions, and the host (Anil Kapoor) is putting up as many roadblocks as possible to keep Malik from winning. How does it all turn out? Well, Slumdog Millionaire is no great mystery, and as the whole project is in reverence to Bollywood cinema, it’s pretty clear this isn’t going to end in tragedy.

The performances in Slumdog Millionaire are mostly okay, with the standouts being Patel and Kapoor. However, the fast editing by Chris Dickens, complemented by the stunning soundtrack by A.R. Rahman, makes Slumdog Millionaire a joy to watch. The script by Simon Beaufoy weaves the complex stories of the separate characters beautifully, keeping the picture exhilarating and interesting throughout. This all comes together masterfully due to the efforts of director Danny Boyle, who has been directing movies as long as I’ve been watching them, and has been responsible for a few of my favorites, including Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Sunshine. If there is any sort of justice in the world, he will receive the Best Directing Oscar this year.

I walked out of Slumdog Millionaire feeling overwhelmingly satisfied. Typically, the Bollywood style comes off as irritating, but Boyle handles the film in such a way that the whole experience plays out with absolute sincerity.

The film culminates with the traditional Bollywood dance number, but I almost felt as though this was a message from Boyle to the Bollywood filmmakers. He was saying, “Your movies could be good too. I promise. Just make them like mine.”