A cinematic plum, is Slumdog M....you will be overwhelmed by the power and beauty of this tale

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2009)

Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is being beaten, and more, by the Indian police. This is because he has been winning on the Indian game show, Who wants to be a millionaire, and they suspect he is cheating. But, when the chief really begins to listen to Jamal's life story, he starts to realize that the young man has not cheated. From an early age, Jamal has risen out of absolute misery to make it to the final questions on the show. As children, he and his slightly older brother, Salim, had to run and hide from the police, if they were caught playing in the wrong city place. Their mutual love for a minor film star provided Jamal with the ability to correctly identify one of M's beginning questions. Then, they lost their mother, brutally, to an ethnic cleansing but the apparel of the attackers aided Jamal in answering another of the show's queries. And, so it continued, throughout the brothers survival in life, from their time as members of a beggars group, run by unbelievably cruel Hindi-Fagins, to their pickup jobs near the Taj Mahal, etc. The brothers were joined by a beautiful girl orphan, Latika, for a time but Salim took her away from Jamal, for a spell. But, Jamal's life journey has, miraculously, provided him with the responses he needs to "win" a million. Will he, ultimately, succeed, or will he go away with nothing? This is a brief, sketchy report on a plum of a film. Slumdog is ingenious and brilliant and touching, in the extreme. To see this unbelievable tale of the triumph of the human spirit, under extremely challenging circumstances, is the ultimate in the "feeling great" category of cinematic experience. As Jamal, Patel excels in his role as the most under of "underdogs" who, nevertheless, rises to amazing heights. All of the other cast members are likewise terrific, from the woman playing Latika, to the television host, and, especially, to the gentleman taking on the very difficult role of Salim. Needless to say, the scenery is a mixture of the sights of India's great beauty and its abject, abysmal poverty. Production values for the film are also great, while the story and direction are flawlessly well-conceived and executed. In summary, do not delay in making time for Slumdog M. It is a perfect plum of a film and everyone will feel like a "million bucks" when it reaches its triumphant conclusion.