Review

Review Date: 14-December-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Although Slumdog Millionaire is comprised of familiar themes, it has a bracing uniqueness that is a real boon for someone who watches a lot of films. The bulk of the story is told by an 18-year-old Indian kid named Jamal (Dev Patel) to a police officer whose professionalism leaves much to be desired (the great Irfan Khan). The officer has arrested and tortured the teen because he has won millions of rupees on the television show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The arrest was ordered by the show's slick host (Anil Kapoor), who does not believe that an uneducated, no-account kid from the slums of Mumbai could answer trivia questions correctly. Jamal explains himself by relating each of the questions from the show to an event in his life. This life has been astonishingly bitter for so few years, with loss, violence, homelessness, and hunger. It has also been marked by an unwavering love that may account for his imperviousness to the stains of poverty.

Director Danny Boyle hurls Jamal's life at the viewer with quick cuts and thumping music, creating an atmosphere befitting the chaos of India. Here are cute little Jamal and his brother Salim acting joyous and naughty as boys are apt to do. (All the child actors are wonderful finds.) Here they team up with a girl named Latika who tries to flee with them from evil men, the failure at which haunts Jamal's soul. Here are slightly older versions of Jamal and Salim hopping trains and discovering a rich swindler's trade at the Taj Mahal, which neither of them knew existed. (An eye-opener, that: a landmark for everyone in countries where people have money to travel is completely unknown to natives of the land where it was built.) Here are the teenaged brothers now set upon different paths with heartache and betrayal between them.

As even the policeman must admit, Jamal is a remarkably uncorrupted person. He has every reason to hate and rage against the world, yet he does not lie, cheat, or yearn for power or wealth — a true fairy tale hero. His appearance on the game show has a single purpose: to attract the notice of the grown Latika (Freida Pinto), who has ever been his guiding star and is still enslaved by their brutal past. After the police release him, the action switches to the present time and his final night on the show when he will either grasp a miraculous future or lose everything on a single answer. Against all evidence from real life, the movie concludes with verve and conviction that sometimes destiny doles out just desserts.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.