Colorful saga from a fast-changing land

Rating: 9/10 (27 December 2008)

Danny Boyle is a versatile director, having done productions as diverse as Inspector Morse episodes, the mordant comedy-drama "Shallow Grave", a celebration of the junkie lifestyle in "Trainspotting, misadventures on the hippie trail in "The Beach", plausible science fiction in "Sunshine" and this colorful Indian romantic fable based on Vikas Swarup's novel "Q&A". It's Bollywood meets Hollywood all right, but there's also a little of the British Ealing comedy in it, where the good little guy takes on the bad establishment. He does so as a contestant in the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire".
A cynic might say that all we have here is another way to exploit the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" franchise, since one of the production companies, Celador (now itself owned by Sony Pictures), also owns the TV show which is given plenty of screen time here. But Jamal Malik (Dev Patel from "Sins"), 18 year old Mumbai slum dweller and and chai wallah tea boy) in a call centre, has non-monetary reasons for wanting to win the contest. He seeks instead to win the affections of his childhood friend, Latika (Frieda Pinto), a rose from the gutter who has fallen into the hands of an obnoxious gang boss, Javed (Mahesh Manjrekar).
The story is cleverly framed around the quiz questions. Jamal gets each answer right because each question happens ('it is written") to be connected with an incident in his own life (fortunately more or less in chronological order). He manages to convince the policeman who has arrested him for fraud (how could a slumdog answer all those questions?) that he is on the level. The climax of the story is the last question. Unbeknown to Jamal, Latika is watching and - not far away.
The two hours running time is filled with people, incident, noise and music. There's even an interlude at the Taj Mahal, where Jamal briefly becomes a (very) unofficial guide.) I note the film has not been released in India, and given the stark portrayal of some of the less attractive aspects of life there (police malpractice and corruption, communal violence, stinking slums and wide-scale gangsterism) I doubt it ever will  appearances are everything on the sub-continent. Unlike films such as "Earth" and "Water", serious pieces made for Indian audiences but banned or never screened there, Slumdog Millionaire, despite the almost all Indian cast and crew, is a Westerner's view from someone who knows how to make squalor entertaining. Danny Boyle doesn't care who he offends as long as he entertains. The last almost post-credits scene of hundreds dancing on the railway platforms to Abba-like music says it all. This is one cheeky film director. But in Noel Coward's words, he has a talent to amuse.
I'm not sure what impact a film like this has on tourism  it might repel as many as it attracts  but one thing does emerge very clearly  India and countries like it (eg China) are changing faster than we imagine. Your correspondent recently spent a few days in Abu Dhabi. This Persian gulf oil sheikdom has gone from a few grass huts to a shining modern (if car dominated) city of nearly a million people in less than 40 years  most of the work having been done by "guest-workers" from Muslim South Asia. Is it not possible that in 40 years time the slums of Mumbai will be history, just as Dicken's London has become?