Filed under: Movie Reviews
If Slumdog Millionaire were art, then the medium would be language, painted with emotion and culture. Any scene from this Academy Award winning film could be used as a still, and be hung in a museum. This colourful, fast paced and often gritting film juxtaposes the decay of culture in the beautiful nation of India with the rise of wealth, greed and corruption.
Jamal Malik (Dev Patal) looks out over where his slum used to be.
Set in the slums of Mumbai, Slumdog Millionaire is a rag to riches story of the uneducated Jamal Malik (Dev Patal) who goes on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and is able to answer every question correctly.
Jamal becomes an overnight sensation in India from success on the first night of the show. The cocky host Prem Kumar, played brilliantly by Anil Kapur, suspects the chai-wallah (as he has labelled Jamal) is a cheat and contacts police. After the filming, he is whisked away by the overly brutal police for interrogation and torture.
During very violent torture scenes, Jamal reveals how he knew the Millionaire answers through a biographic retelling of his life and love. The flashbacks and their relevance to the questions is a huge coincidence but necessary for the movement of the plot. Also, viewers may question the realism behind the Indian police would using electro torture on a game show contestant.
Through flashback, the audience will see a young Jamal grows up amongst incredible poverty, pollution and religious racism; his mother is killed in an anti-Muslim riot in his slum. This begins his journey alongside his troubled and often psychotic brother Salim and his lifelong love, Latika.
Slumdog Millionaire has been heavily criticised in the American media for its portrayal of and its alleged ‘glorification’ of Indian poverty, pollution and the slums. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle uses the camera to highlight the mountains of plastic and dirty river water against the childish playfulness of a young Jamal. The slums are filmed with the same fast paced editing that the Indian skyscrapers are, showing no difference between the two.
There is no stand out performance in this film they are all amazing for their age. Freida Pinto as an older Latika is revered and mature, whilst Salim (Madhur Mittal) plays his gun wielding, gangsta character to a tee. Director Danny Boyle has created Jamal’s two closest loves to represent the different sides of a modern India.
Unlike many other films to appear on our screens in 2008/2009, Slumdog Millionaire has a different cultural effect. The films heroes are Muslim and are not American. This sparks a beautiful change in dynamics in the film and its genre.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
A Film Affair 