Who wants to see a great movie?

Rating: 8/10 (7 February 2009)

There's a real buzz about this unlikely Oscar contender but it's fully merited. Danny Boyle's off-beat parable, with at its centre, the unlikely premise that a poor young "phone-basher" (call centre worker) could win the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" grips the viewer immediately and conveys a marvellous episodic story, leaving some indelible images along the way.
With a start that reminded me of the similar-territory Oscar-winning "City of God", we are quickly introduced to the three main characters in their infancy Salim, the (street)-smarter, often crueler older brother, Jamil, the trusting, caring younger brother and Latika, the pretty young girl who crosses their path looking for shelter from the storm, just when they're all made orphans. From there, we're taken on the hugely entertaining journey through their lives as their paths criss-cross to a background of poverty, criminality and cruelty before we reach the deserved "happy-ending" as Jamil and Latika finally come together.
Boyle also makes India the star of the movie but not the "Bollywood" version, (although I loved too the Bollywood concession over the final credits). Here, right from the start, we're landed in a grindingly poor "shantytown" with piles of rubbish everywhere, are then moved into the shockingly cruel world of procured child-beggaring (where in a no-pun intended, twist on the enduring image of Fagin and Oliver, adult criminals think nothing of blinding young children to bring in more money from donors), graduating finally to adult crime with Salim's employment as hit man and Latika as in-house concubine to the same Mr Big gangster.
The film is unusually constructed - just who is interrogating Jamil over his win and why it's not revealed until the plot is well advanced (and the answer is surprising too!) and the coincidental reason ("It is written") that this young man can answer all the questions on his way to the last question is cleverly fed to the audience as the movie progresses.
The young actors are all terrific, each character goes through three stages as they grow to maturity and all nine are convincing. Director Boyle intersperses his rollicking story with myriad unforgettable images, (the early airborne shots of the shantytown village, Jamil emerging from (let's be polite) a dung-heap to claim the autograph of his Bollywood idol, young Latika standing outside in the rain, I could go on and on - realising these images are all from only the first 20 minutes. There's plenty of earthy humour too (plus, being Scottish, I laughed out loud at the call-centre interview with the "wifie" from Kingussie - I've had that conversation, as I'm sure has director Boyle!) to leaven the toughness and severity of what surrounds it and of course a genuinely gripping climax too as Jamil, now a symbol of hope to the whole country gets asked the big question, that properly takes us back to the start as this story of our three young musketeers, although not without cost, is brought to a proper conclusion.
A wonderful film, I'm still recalling other scenes, images and laughs even as I finish this. Do yourself a favour, ignore everything else at your local cinema and go see this.