Good movie, great direction, poor storytelling

Rating: Null/10 (7 December 2008)

I'm a little surprised that almost all reviews of this movie have been overwhelmingly positive. Don't get me wrong, it is a must watch. However, I'll stick to negatives; for the positives, yes, they are all correct.
The first few minutes of the movie were enthralling - it showed the real Bombay, the slums of India, with great screenplay and camera-work. I was left expecting something of great quality, cinema in the genre of "City of God". Judging by those high standards, the movie was somewhat of a let-down as it degraded into a Bollywoodesque entertainer. Half-an-hour in, I got the impression that the director did not quite associate himself with India, and parts came off as condescending and flippant.
The main problem was an incredibly weak storyline. The story is that of a slumboy in chapters as he answers questions on India's version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". The correlation of the questions to his life is contrived at best, but this doesn't matter since the aim of the movie is to showcase his life in the Indian slum. It is a travelogue of India to the Western audience. In this respect the movie succeeds entirely. It is very real, gets to the heart of India - its immeasurable poverty, its craze for Bollywood and cricket, its social problems. However, I didn't like the carelessness with which some topics were treated. While this saves us from an overly sentimental and depressing movie, I feel it almost condones some of these evils, or at least accepts them as a part of everyday life.
Overall, it is a very entertaining feel-good movie that you won't regret watching no matter who you are and what you like. If you are a Bollywood fan, this will be the best Bollywoodish movie you have seen in ages. If you are the movie-critic, you will have plenty to enjoy and ruminate.
My rating: 7/10