Now I don't want to get into spoiler territory with this review, because it is a film I think people should go into not knowing all the twist and turns. Slumdog Millionaire is the tale of a young Indian boy named Jamal who is a contestant on the Indian version of the television show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He has earned more money than any other contestant in the history of the show and has become a national icon and inspiration in the process. The beginning of the movie starts with Jamal being accused of cheating his way to success on the gameshow. No one believes that this poor orphan, that grew up in the slums and the streets of Mumbai, can know all of the answers to these questions that well educated Doctors and Professors can't even answer correctly. Subsequently he is arrested and accused of cheating. What we are shown as Jamal is being questioned by the police are a series of flashbacks telling the tale of his life, from a small child to the present day. Each questions that he answers actually ties back to a significant moment in his life, and we soon learn that all of the questions he knows the answers to, he knows because of his unique life experience.
The real power of Slumdog Millionaire lies in the telling of Jamal and his brother Salim's tragic childhood. The brothers become orphans in the slums at a young age. Left to fend for themselves they befriend other orphans, suffer at the hands of people trying to exploit them, lie, cheat, steal and do whatever they have to do to survive. The night the boys are orphaned Jamal even finds the love of his life when the two brothers befriend another young orphan named Latika; Latika is the key to the heart of Slumdog Millionaire. Jamal instantly falls in love with her, and when the two brothers and Latika become separated after escaping from the bonds of child slavery, he spends all of his time trying to find her and find out what happened to her.
What is really special about this movie is that Boyle had the stones to actually shoot the entire film in India, with unknown (at least to American audiences) actors, and to show audiences a side of life in another country that they may not want to see or that may be hard to watch at times. Jamal, Salim and Latika do not have an easy life. It is a life where you would expect them all to turn out as criminals, which Salim does. In one particularly brutal scene of child abuse, I could hear a middle aged women behind me in the theatre mutter three or four times, "oh this is just awful, this is just terrible." I have to agree with her about the scene being hard to watch, but just because something is terrible or hard to watch, does that then mean we shouldn't be shown it? I think it is a good thing to show audiences, especially American audiences who in many cases, lead such a privileged life, may not be confronted with conditions like the ones depicted in this film. Maybe it will move people to actually try to do something for once and break out of the little, sheltered world they live in and acknowlege and identify with the struggles of other human beings. Sorry, I went off on a little mini rant there.
Anyhow, we are shown the life of Jamal, Salim and Latika from the time they are small children, all the way up to their late teen or early twenties. We also see where Jamal is getting all his answers from and we learn, and the police questioning him learn, that he is indeed not cheating. At one point in the film Jamal does find his old friend and lost love Latika, only to be tragically separated from her again. He is crushed, but ever the optimist, he comes up with a new way to find out where she is. He gets on the television show Who Wants To Be a Millionaire because he knows Latika loves the show and he hopes that she will see him on TV and seek him out. What transpires to bring them together in the end is truly inspirational. Slumdog Millionaire not only turns out to be a love story, but a story of the underdog who triumphs against all odds, and not bullshit odds like in some lame sports movies, but real odds, with a real life and death struggle to survive.
What I have failed to mention up to this point is that the film really feels alive with energy and a sense of place. You come to know India and the people of India during the course of the movie and you also identify with them. Slumdog also happens to be really funny, with one scene in particular where Jamal does everything in his power to meet his hero who is an Indian action star; the scenes is both disgusting, yet extremely hilarious at the same time.
Boyle has crafted a universal movie that really will melt the heart of the most jaded cynic and is in my opinion, his greatest movie to date. There have been some truly inspirational movies this year and Slumdog Millionaire along with Man On Wire are really life affirming pieces of art that I highly recommend to anyone and everyone. Yes there are some scenes that are hard to stomach, but the journey the viewer takes along the way with Jamal, Salim and Latika is well worth the ride in the end.
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