Its pure genius how director Danny Boyle has been able to dabble in so many different genres,slipping into new territory and coming out like an old pro every time.The man behind some of my favorite films -28 Days Later and Trainspotting (I kind of liked The Beach too,for the escapist plot and Tilda Swinton's cold-blooded performance)-and with Slumdog Millionare he's created another winning piece of cinema.Slumdog Millionare tells of Jamal Malik-orphaned at a very young age,he flees from Mumbai with his older brother Salim and they fall into the hands of a gangster-operated organization who force children into beggars.Along for the trip is Latika,her parents both dead and eventually she and Jamal form a cute camaraderie much to the disapproval and hatred of Salim.The brothers eventually elope,with Latika left behind-and what ensues is Jamal's search for Latika.When they finally discover her many years ahead,he loses her again no thanks to a trail of extremely convoluted events until finally as adults,Jamal joins the gameshow "Who Wants to be a Millionare" to overcome this enormous barrier that has developed between him and Latika over time.
The most outstanding aspect of the movie is its depiction of India.We've all seen films,foreign or local,dealing with poverty and the lower classes of society.More often than not,the settings are neatly packaged and engineered-like in the African film Tsotsi-the makeshift cabins look brand new,the sand looks store-bought and the "poor people" clothes seem overly fancy and too intricately patterned.In Slumdog,no part of it could ever belong on a Hollywood set-the villages are crammed with zig-zag houses and the children look downtrodden but genuine.Its an India that's colorful and animated-but every detail of it fits in an untempered way,which is what makes it such a fascinating observation.
What I didn't like,was that at heart it was a shameless,shallow fairy-tale.Things turn harder for Jamal in his process of finding Latika-challenges mount for him as more thugs and gangsters and bodyguards obstruct him,its like someone read the first draft of the script and said "No,I want him to suffer more,throw in some more baddies and make Latika a more slippery catch".In predictable,melodramatic fashion-at one point when Jamal does face Latika,she cites their now different lives and her being a gangster's whore as a reason for him to "let her go".Furthermore,characters flip from bad to good in a blink and the way every single question he's asked on show reflects on his past and is somehow pre-arranged by destiny is too hard to believe.Halfway through I gave in to this saccharine fantasy,all of which paved its way to a typically tacky and worry-free ending.
What more,actor Dev Patel (from Skins) who plays Jamal is far too young and inexperienced-in the entire film,he displays no more than two facial expressions and next to veteran performers Irrfan Khan (from The Namesake,A Mighty Heart) and Anil Kaapor,he looks silly and out of place.However,there's plenty of other things to love about it.A.R. Rahman's scoring strongly compliments the film and all the child actors were wonderful to watch,on top of that there's no doubting its extremely well-directed.So even if it was openly daft and romantic,I admit it was engaging from start to end.
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