Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Danny Boyle (Sunshine) directed this wildly energetic, Dickensian drama about the desultory life and times of an Indian boy whose bleak, formative experiences lead to an appearance on his country’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Jamal (played as a young man by Dev Patel) and his brother are orphaned as children, raising themselves in various slums and crime-ridden neighorhoods and falling in, for a while, with a monstrous gang exploiting children as beggars and prostitutes. Driven by his love for Latika (Freida Pinto), Jamal, while a teen, later goes on a journey to rescue her from the gang’s clutches, only to lose her again to another oppressive fate as the lover of a notorious gangster.
It’s fresh and it’s magical and horrific. It’s the hero’s story of a quest. And it’s the story of the city of Mumbai, India, with its vast contrasts of utter poverty in an emerging modern world. It moves with lightning speed and I found myself smiling one minute and grimacing in disgust in another. It’s an emotional roller coaster ride that left me exhilarated and convinced that this breakthrough film is a true global masterpiece.
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Slumdog Millionaire
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