Thursday, 07 May 2009 01:00 | and posted in Movie Reviews
The Oscars this year (and almost every other movie awards) were taken over by this relatively low budget British film. It won 8 Oscars and 77 other awards. Even months after it was originally released it was still showing in my local cinema. With so many awards I guessed it must be good but I decided to find out if it really was the “feel good film of the decade”. Slumdog Millionaire is about Jamal Malik, an Indian boy living in Mumbai. He is a contestant on the Indian version of the show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” Jamal is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees when he is suspected of cheating. The police interrogate Jamal to find out how a boy from the slums could know all the answers. Each question holds a story behind it and in the story behind the answers we see Jamal grow up.
Although the film’s setting in the Mumbai slums is often very grim there is a light-heartedness which penetrates each chapter of Jamal’s life. His adventures with his brother offer some great laugh-out-loud moments: Jamal finds himself locked in a toilet when India’s greatest movie star is passing, the only way out is down…
As the answers to the quiz questions are revealed another question crops up: why is Jamal on the show when he has no obvious desire for money? Intertwined in this mystery is Latika, Jamal’s soul mate. We eventually find that he has gone on the show because he knows that all of India will be watching, including Latika.
At many points throughout the story we feel a huge amount of pity for Jamal as he is manipulated, separated from his brother and Latika and unfairly caught up in gangs. The sad thing is, is that this is reality for many children growing up in India.
However, this film is not a sad film. For some people it really will be the “feel good film of the decade” but for others maybe not. I certainly came out with a smile on my face and would give Slumdog Millionaire 5 out of 5.
