The Cinephile’s Journey: Slumdog Millionaire

Recommendation: 4/5 Stars  

The Cinephile’s Journey is an attempt to watch and review every film that has won The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar for Best Picture.  

Plot: “A Mumbai teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”.” -IMDB 

Review: Slumdog Millionaire opens at a frenetic pace that defines Danny Boyle’s directorial style. From beginning to end, it never relaxes or takes its foot off the gas. The staging serves as the source for this breakneck speed.  

As a contestant on the Indian version of the popular game show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”, we will watch Jamal’s (Dev Patel) story unfold. Each question and answer will reveal a flashback to his childhood and early teenage years.  

For Jamal, childhood was a test of survival. Forced into unspeakable poverty after the death of their caretaker, Jamal and his brother Salim go to great lengths to make it from one day to the next. Living among the slums and heaps of garbage, they eek out an existence. But this shall not be their fate forever. As if heaven-sent, Jamal and his brother find comfort and protection in a stranger’s home for orphans. But things are not as they seem. His new caretaker teaches them to steal, beg, and take advantage of people’s charity. When Salim learns of the man’s plans to blind Jamal to make him an even more convincing target of charity, the boys make an escape that left me breathless.

In their dust, they leave behind a young Latika, an orphan girl they met while living on the streets. Since their first meeting, Jamal found himself mesmerized by her presence. Leaving her behind is a heartbreaking scene to behold, but their paths will cross again and again. It is destiny.

While watching their story play out, it reminded me of Forrest Gump and the on and off again love story of Forrest and Jenny. While India is also a character in this story, as much as America was a character in Forrest Gump, there is little doubt that these two are living exceptional lives and need each other deeply.  

Searching high and low, their paths finally cross. Having survived childhood, it would seem they are finally free to be together. Standing in their way is a brother’s betrayal, an uncaring crime boss, as well as an uneasy violence and poverty that define much of this film. Losing her one more time, Jamal concocts a plan to get on the country’s most popular game show. In a county of over a billion people, surely, she will see him this way.  

As Jamal’s “bizarrely plausible” story plays out on national television, his plan works. Using a lifeline, he finally reconnects with Latika. The only question that remains is if they can find each other in the madness of it all (something I will not spoil here).  

I have not spent a lot of time in the world of Bollywood, but I felt its influence and meeting with Western cinema throughout this film (see the end credits). The underlying theme of this film is not a complicated one. It is a love story between a boy and a girl. What makes it a memorable story and something I continue returning to are the cultural details used to paint their relationship from beginning to end. For these revelations, I cannot help but love this story.  

Be good to each other,  

Nathan