On Sunday, September 7, English-made film Slumdog Millionaire made its debut at TIFF, where it handily won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award. All of this considering that Slumdog Millionaire nearly went straight to DVD after Warners’ Independent Pictures closed its doors earlier this year. Fragile monies are often involved with the kind of independent films that festivals such as TIFF exist for. Thankfully, the movie was picked up by competitor Fox Searchlight. At the Festival, the movie became a rarity: both a critical and popular favorite.
The film is an ambitious Dickensian story set in contemporary India, brought to us by acclaimed director Danny Boyle of 1996’s Trainspotting fame, together with Indian director Loveleen Tandan. Dev Patel stars as Jamal Malik, an 18-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is just one question away from winning an incredible 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants to be A Millionaire?" He is arrested because the show’s host (played to great effect by Anil Kapoor) “suspects him of cheating”. The truth is that the host is an egotistical jerk who doesn’t want others to be successful. At the police station, Jamal tells the police about the remarkable tale of his life as a “slumdog” (the not-so-nice term used to describe India’s street kids) growing up in Mumbai. Yet, Jamal claims to have no interest in money. Why not? He has nothing and he’s on the show. And, still, how is it that a slumdog can possibly know most of the answers to the show’s questions?
As it turns out, Jamal, his brother Samir, who grew up to be a gangster; and their fellow orphan Latika (Freida Chinto), forced into prostitution, but is the love of Jamal’s life; have all lived through a horrifying childhood beginning with the site of the boys’ mother viciously killed during an anti-Muslim street riot. These memories have been seared into Jamal’s brain, apparently, amply providing him with most of the answers to the show’s trivia questions. Boyle uses this incredible premise to paint an all-encompassing portrait of India’s gut-wrenching, cutthroat society.
Manchester-born Danny Boyle worked in theatre and television before he began directing movies. With only his second feature Trainspotting (1996), he achieved cult status. His feature filmography also includes The Beach (2000) starring Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio, 28 Days Later (2003), and, of course, Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
Dev Patel’s multifaceted Jamal appears to be a golden boy from the wrong side of the tracks, working odd jobs diligently, refusing to follow the gang life of his gangster brother Samir. However, Jamal’s streets smarts enable him to see right through the game show's host, a man who repeatedly tries to trick Jamal out of the show’s winnings, before finally having him arrested “on suspicion of cheating”. Jamal quickly realizes that the game show will be his biggest life test yet. And we learn that Jamal’s desire to be on the show has more to do with saving—and having—Latika than it does with winning any amount of money.
With the help of a reformed Samir, Latika escapes the prostitution harem to find Jamal. Why, you ask, would wayward Samir agree to help his brother’s love Latika? Especially when Samir was one of the main people forcing her to remain a prostitute? Well, (1) we are shown him actively practicing his Muslim faith in the dim hope of absolving himself for his sins, and (2) we see Samir's face filled with what looked to be awe and wonder, every time he sees brother Jamal on TV. It was as if Samir finally accepted what he’d known all along: that Jamal was no longer just a jo-boy working at what Samir viewed as 'loser' jobs, that he was a much bigger and better person that Samir could ever be, or hope to be. Samir chose to pay homage to this realization in the end, knowing fully well that by assisting Latika get away from the gang that he would have to pay the ultimate price as determined by his fellow gangsters.
Slumdog Millionaire is a broad and cinematic narrative, and a wholeheartedly affecting movie experience. The young cast is fantastic, but it is Boyle’s cinematic scope that gives us a thorough feel for the heat, sweat, and street life of Mumbai. The enormous crowds, colors, volume, and sheer pace of modern-day India provide a steamy and electrifying backdrop to Boyle's vigorous movie. Slumdog Millionaire does tip its hat to Bollywood so that the love story is definitely affecting, but, thankfully, the film kept its central focus on whether or not a person can really survive and thrive after life on the streets of India.
View the trailer at http://www.independent-magazine.org/media/slumdog-millionaire-clip>trailer.