Slumdog Millionaire

Before I review, I must admit the only Danny Boyle film I have seen before this is TRAINSPOTTING, desperate youths whose getting high is the thing. It’s practically a slapstick comedy compared to what the slumdog kids aka the three musketeers go through. It doesn’t matter that the happy ending is improbable. Dramatically it works.

The basic storytelling structure is a series of flashbacks. Jamal (Dev Patel) is about to be given the 20,000,000 Rupee question on India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.“ The host Kumar (Anil Kappor) strongly suspects Jamal, this slumdog, India English slang for gutter trash, is cheating. He turns him over to the cops who torture him. In fact, it’s this torture that launches this narrative.

However, when no confession comes out, the Police Inspectoer (Irfan Khan) listens to Jamal’s story. It turns out that just about all events that has happened to Jamal’s life has been key to all the questions being answered on the show. Also in these images is the smiling Latika (Freida Pinto) whose story gets revealed.

In fact, both Jamal’s and Latika’s characters get played by younger actors along with Jamal’s older brother Salim (adult played by Madhal Pattal) who saves Jamal from blindness but who also takes Latika away from him. That these kids survived into adulthood is a miracle onto itself.

However, there is humor interspersed. Would you fall into a pile of human excrement just to get an autograph? But mostly, it’s the underbelly of child predators, street gangs and even prostitution of barely legal virgins that gets exposed here.

I already gave too much away but will close what clinched my like of this movie for me. One of my favorite books growing up was “The Three Muskateers” by Alexandre Dumas. I’m glad the last question pertained to that.

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