Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire (****)


Slumdog Millionaire tells a relatively straightforward story which easily could have made for a hammy and shallow movie, but instead was made into one of the best movies of the year by director Danny Boyle (who made Millions, a movie very nearly as good). Our protagonist and hero in this story is Jamal, a young man who grew up in dire poverty in a Muslim enclave in India. We first meet him being introduced on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," and then getting beaten up in a prison cell after being accused of cheating, having gotten all but the final question correct before time ran out on the first day of filming.

After this introduction, we jump back and forth between the present and the past, as Jamal explains how he came to know the answer to each question he'd been asked, with each explanation coming in the form of a little vignette from some point in his childhood. Jamal's first question is about a famous Indian movie star, and we go back to when Jamal was very young to see him go to great lengths to get the autograph of said movie star in a scene that first and foremost is supposed to be funny (and is). Afterwards though, we see his brother, Salim, take the autograph and sell it. Salim is less of a romantic and sentimentalist than Jamal, more resourceful, and more desperate to end their plight of poverty and start making money. This scene is the first hint of what will eventually become a large schism between the two brothers that will come to a head in the movie's last act. Another questions asks Jamal what object a certain Indian religious figure is usually holding in depictions of her, an image which, it so happens, was burned into Jamal's mind when his neighborhood was attacked by a band of Hindis who don't take too kindly to Muslims. He's orphened as mother is killed in the ensuing violence, and Jamal, his brother Salim, and another girl, Lakita, barely escape together.

Some scenes are more lighthearted, as when Jamal and Salim stumble upon the Taj Mahall--a building which has no real significance to them, despite its ability to attract tourists from most everywhere around the world--and do odd-jobs for naive tourists, like taking group photos for them, or giving them tours with completely fabricated information (like how the princess who inhabited the palace died in a traffic accident). Other scenes are much darker, as when Jamal, Salim, and Lakita, are taken in by a man who appears charitable but is actually using a veritable army of children for a truly despicable money making scheme. Eventually, Jamal manages to find a steady job at one of those huge call centers where Indian people pretend like they're from Oklahoma. He doesn't actually work the phones, though, he's an "assistant," which is a nice way of saying that he's basically an errand boy. Among his duties is serving tea to people, a fact which the sharply-dressed host of the "Millionaire" show--who vaguely looks like an Indian version of Dennis Miller--finds especially amusing.

All of these scenes reflect the stark differences in life between social classes in India. In a weird way, the fact that they used the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" complements this theme of social stratification. The Indian version of "Millionaire" is just like the U.S. one, it takes place on a ridiculous set that looks like it could double as the interior of a spaceship from a bad 1950s sci-fi movie, adorned with stage lights that move around the stage in between questions for no other reason than to produce a cool effect. Watching the movie bounce back and forth between Jamal's life in the slums, and his "Millionaire" taping gives the "Millionaire" set a fantasy-like quality, as if Jamal is entering a different world, not just because he can win an amount of money that he couldn't even imagine earlier in his life, but because his life has never had the kind of frivolity enjoyed by the middle and upper class in India who can actually sit down and watch television. Consider his brother Salim at the end of the film, who chooses to rise up out of poverty using a much more direct route. He ends up wealthier than he was before, but essentially indentured to a local gangster.

Slumdog Millionaire is an uplifting story and in many ways a heartwarming story, but also doesn't have its head constantly up in the clouds. Its an excellent portrayal of the stark reality of the most impoverished places in India, but even without the social commentary works as an entertaining drama in the same vein as Quiz Show. Its been widely acclaimed and looks like it might sneak in with an Oscar nomination, an honor it would be most deserving of.