Slumdog Millionaire - Truly Divine Providence

cocobytes Review
Danny Boyle’s latest movie, “Slumdog Millionaire” is essentially a film about karma.

A spiritual and uplifting story of outrageous colour, devastating poverty and heartfelt performances set against the frenzied, multifaceted & sadistic backdrop of modern day Mumbai, India.

With Slumdog, Boyle has changed direction yet again from previous films such as “Trainspotting,” “The Beach,” and “Sunshine”.

An outstanding Dev Patel as Jamal Malik is a poor street kid (slumdog) who somehow through divine intervention appears as a contestant on the Indian version of game show “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.” Jamal manages to correctly answer every question thrown at him by the show’s host, (brilliantly played by Anil Kapoor), through his own life experiences until he comes to the final 20 million rupee question. How could a penniless street kid possibly know all the answers?

The show producers are very suspicious and Jamal is dragged away for a torturous questioning session led by police inspector, Bollywood star, Irfan Khan. During the interrogation, we begin to see the pieces of Jamal’s life story and how each of the questions he answers in the show are not studied from a book but are linked to the many traumatic events that have taken place during his deprived life.

His story is of the three musketeers, Jamal, his brother Salim played by Madhur Mittal and Latika, the beautiful Freida Pinto, a girl he meets along his travels and falls in love with. We follow the many harrowing challenges that they face together during their young lives. The story alternates from Jamal’s appearance on the show to flashbacks of his upbringing and watch as the small group grow up and are faced with these confrontations to enable survival.

Visually, “Slumdog Millionaire” is dazzling. The screen is awash with the fluorescent hues of saris, buildings, landscapes and the people. We move rapidly through narrow slums, palaces, skyscrapers, railroad tracks, hi-tech call-centres and the pungent melange that make up present day Mumbai but are always aware of the intense poverty and terrifying brutality that is rampant.

The tight editing and kick ass soundtrack are skillfully executed with pumping drum & bass and Bollywood strings that accentuate the chaos that is Mumbai. But in the end, it’s the heartfelt performances by this mostly unknown cast that will suck you in.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is a movie that makes you aware that sometimes in life divine providence does truly step in to help the underdog.

See it now.