It’s
no accident that a scene at the start of Slumdog Millionaire
looks familiar. A burst of saffron-coloured light and the thrum
of Bhangra pop follows a pair of small boys high-tailing it
through the mud and filthy back alleys of their Bombay
shantytown racing to escape the police. Now, move the scene to
the backstreets of Edinburgh and replace the thumping Indian
music with Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, call the two boys Renton
and Spud and there’s your huckleberry. The affectionate
reminder of Trainspotting is wildly appropriate, for Slumdog
Millionaire is nearly as much of a revolutionary breakout for
the director of both films, Danny Boyle, as was his 1996
classic.
Jamal Mailk is a lucky,
lucky young man. He’s done the unthinkable and has correctly
answered nearly all the questions on the Indian version of the
ever-popular Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (- basically the
same as our US version except for the host’s occasional need to
get up and boogie). Jamal’s amazing skill and knowledge is
the toast of the country, yet not everyone is pleased with his
success. While the populace thrills and gathers around their
television sets awaiting Jamal’s return to answer the final
question, Jamal is recovering from the torturous interrogation
of the police who have been led to believe the boy is cheating.
There is simply no way to account for this uneducated boy from
the slums doing what has never been done before and winning 20
million rupees. What we are shown by way of flashbacks is that
Jamal does know the answer to every question through hard life
lessons ingrained on his heart and soul as every answer happens
to relate to a different situation in the young man’s tragic
past. We’re taken from the impoverished childhood of Jamal and
his dominating older brother Salim, where they play in the dirt
dressed in rags, running childish scams for money. Poor but
happy, they are content to live in squalor as does their entire
town until the day a religious riot breaks out and their mother
is innocently caught in the onslaught. Fending for themselves,
the boys, now homeless and joined by a fellow waif, the shy
Latika, are herded by an orphan’s home where they are trained to
beg in the streets using all manner of coercion. The children
soon discover that their pleading and singing aren’t sufficient
for their benefactors, who know that maimed and crippled
children earn more as beggars than kids who are whole. The men
have no qualm at doing unspeakable things to their charges to
get a few extra rupees. Once again, the boys are set adrift,
relying on their wits to get them through. As Bombay becomes
Mumbai and the boys grow into teenagers, Salim’s path is wildly
different from the gentler, cautious Jamal, as the older brother
aligns himself with the local gangsters. In the meantime, Jamal
labors as a busboy in a restaurant and eventually rises in the
working world as a chai wallah (tea boy). Jamal worries about
his reckless sibling and yearns for the lost Latika, who has
been making her own way in the world as best she can, eventually
becoming the mistress of Salim’s mob boss. Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire is the only good fortune to ever happen to Jamal,
representing a better life for him and the two people he cares
about and even this small gift of fate is threatened to be taken
from him.
For a director who once
said he does better on his home turf, Boyle seems to have taken
that statement and ripped it into confetti. Boyle’s batteries
seem have to been recharged by the challenge of filming entirely
in India with an Indian cast and most of the dialog in Hindu.
Slumdog Millionaire was clearly an adventure for the filmmaker
and the result is a brilliant, heart-wrenching Charles Dickens
tale by way of Bollywood. All the hyperkinetic, textural
camerawork and energy that one expects from a Danny Boyle film
is here multiplied times 10 with the enthusiastic embrace of the
cast, particularly Dev Patel as the grown Jamal and the very
young children playing Jamal, Salim and Latika in their youngest
days. They are so unaffected and natural that it only makes
watching the brutality of their lives all the more poignant.
The movie’s smiling faced Fagin orphanage master is far more the
monster than could ever have been read in Oliver Twist and his
cruelty toward his charges is harrowing and unforgettable. Not
to say the film isn’t laced with humour; another look back to
Trainspotting is a groan-inducing leap of faith into the bowels
of an outhouse that one character makes in order to get a
precious autograph from a visiting movie star. As the older
Jamal, Dev Patel’s puppy-dog eyes reflect the endless agonies
he’s faced since he was born and alternately, his rare smiles
make Jamal’s joys the audience’s joys. You root for this
underdog to come out on top even as the police are electrocuting
him and mobsters are disfiguring his long lost love. As would
be expected from a Danny Boyle film, the soundtrack is
remarkable, featuring original music by A.R. Rahman and songs
from M.I.A. While no one in the film breaks into song as they
would in a Bollywood film, Boyle is aware enough of the
territory to give us one glorious life-affirming ending that
really puts a bow on this lovely gift of a film that’s one of
the best of the year.
It is written: Slumdog
Millionaire is truly a one in a million.
~ The Lady Miz Diva
Nov 9th, 2008
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