Slumdog Millionaire

Rating: 9/10 (12 June 2012)

Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire, a movie which is an adaptation of the book Q&A by Vikas Swarup, was directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan. Furthermore the screenplay was done by Simon Beaufoy.
The leading roles are played by: Dev Patel (Jamal Malik), Freida Pinto (Latika) and Madhur Mittal (Salim Malik).
Slumdog Millionaire is a story about the life and struggle of a 18 year old boy, Jamal Malik. He is just one question away from winning 20 million rupees on an Indian TV-show called "who wants to be a millionaire") Nobody ever came so close to actually winning that amount of money, so therefore he got arrested before he had the chance to answer the last question. The police and show crew suspected him of cheating during the game, how would a kid from the slums have all the answers otherwise? Mumbai's police sergeant Srinivas interrogates and tortures Jamal. With the evidence that he had no formal education and was a thief in his younger years the sergeant is determined to use any method to find out how Jamal got the information needed to come so close to winning. Each chapter of the movie reveals information by the use of flashbacks on each individual question about how he knew the answer to each of them. During all these layers of his past you keep finding out more about where his motivation for the show lies in, a young girl he met when he was a little kid back in the slums called Latika. Whom Jamal still loved after "losing" her several times, he hoped the TV-show would make her come back to find him.
We found the movie stunning. The use of light and music in the movie really helped bring forth the emotion in the film. For example, the color yellow was used a lot, as a cultural reference, but also to contrast or enlighten the mood in scenes. The techniques they used such as silhouettes, color contrast, artificial and natural lighting, they were all done very well, and to full advantage. They gave the viewer the feeling they were actually in India, together with the characters, and made the story even more believable. The use of music in the movie also played an important role in creating the scene. The use of fading in and out at the right moments was done very well, in our opinion. Sometimes however, the music, although describing the scene well, could cause some chaos on screen, and made what the people were saying difficult to understand.
Slumdog millionaire deals with very serious topics such as: child trafficking, poverty prostitution and civil war but still it is a very energetic and positive film. We see many great scenes in the film were Jamal, although an orphan with many troubles still makes the best of every situation. For example there is a very moving scene where we watch two children run through the streets of Mumbai. Anthony Dod Mantle does a tremendous job on the camera-work in not only this scene but throughout the whole film. Not only the camera-work but also the use of lighting and music make this film very entertaining to watch. The bright vivid colors bring out the cultural elements of India and drag the audience right into the setting. The story of Jamal is told in three different kinds of story- perspectives. One is where Jamal is participating the quiz and mostly Jamal and the presenter of 'Who want to be a millionaire?'' are speaking. Another is when Jamal is being interrogated by the police and the last perspective is the view from his flashbacks. This might sound a little chaotic but that is not the case since the editing is done wonderfully. The effect of having these perspectives is that it grabs the attention of the viewer and makes the audience curious. We get to see some beautiful shots of Mumbai during the flashbacks as well, which is a perfect setting for this film because it handles with all the topics mentioned earlier. The acting in the film was very realistic and the actors did a very good job. Anil Kapoor, a well-known name in the Indian film industry, played the part of the arrogant host of the show. Besides his arrogance he still wins over the viewer with his charms just like he wins over the audience in the show during the movie. British actor, Dev Patel plays the innocent tea-serving boy character of Jamal just as convincing. The scenes during the show these two characters contrast each other personalities very well and contribute to the success of this film. Boyle contrasts the sometimes too cheesy romantic scenes, which occur in a lot of Bollywoodfilms with a lot of realistic and striking elements. We think that is what made the film so successful; it has a perfect formula of romantic and dramatic moments.
In conclusion the movie was a very great success, most of the scenes contained images about the life in India which most viewers in the western world would find hard to imagine. This concept was pretty new to the film industry and it turned out pretty well as this became a huge blockbuster in the year of release. The use of flashbacks made this movie a lot more interesting to watch instead of using the chronological "method." Driven by fantastic energy and a torrent of vivid images of India old and new, "Slumdog Millionaire" is a blast. Simon Beaufoy's intricate and cleverly structured script, Chris Dickens' impressive editing skills and the whole art department crew contributed a lot to this huge hit.