A "formula film"

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2009)

Honestly, I don't understand what the fuss is about. This story about a boy from a slum who competes in the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" is a basic rags to riches story with nothing creative or novel about it. The acting is average, and the story-telling is nothing you would not find in several Bollywood melodramas. (Thankfully, however, what it does not have is the story line interrupted by the random fantasy sequences in a Bollywood film. Otherwise it is a story that has been told by countless Bollywood directors.) It is striking some chord in Western audiences that I don't get. Perhaps it is the realistic portrayal of the slums and Mumbai's underbelly, perhaps it is the feel good emotion that provided much-needed emotional uplift in hard times. At the core it is just a formulaic potboiler.