An amazing film you won't easily forget

Rating: 9/10 (20 January 2009)

Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is an uneducated young adult, one question away from winning India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. But not many people believe an orphan from the slums of Mumbai could ever get that far without cheating. He is arrested, tortured and interrogated under these increasing suspicions. To prove his innocence, Malik tells the police the story of his life, and how he managed to know every answer.
Slumdog Millionaire is quite simply, one of the best films of 2008. It tells a timeless and endearing story, and is one of the most unique films of the decade. Danny Boyle, a unique and enigmatic director in his own right, has crafted one hell of an adventure piece that deserves every ounce of praise it has gotten. It starts up, and it is almost a crime to look away.
Rather effectively, the film covers Jamal's life with his brother Salim as orphan children of the slums, before moving onto their lives as teenagers scraping together cash and their eventual very different adult selves. The editing is fast-paced for the most part, and the transitions between life cycles are just fabulous. It also manages to capture the relationship between Jamal and Salim quite magnificently through the use of various actors. Whether it is Ayush Mahesh Khedekar and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, or Tanay Hemant Chheda and Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, or Patel and Madhur Mittal, each actor makes their relationship have a deep seated amount of genuine emotion injected into them. And for a group mainly consisting of actors with little to no experience, they do better than anyone could have expected. It is particularly amazing seeing Khedekar and Ismail working together, being so young on the screen but ensuring no one would question the believability of their plight or their relationship as brothers.
While fantastical, the film depicts a very dystopic and gritty life of a kid in the slums. But while the film does not all take place in the slums, it still manages to be very vivid in its colour scheme. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and Editor Chris Dickens at once command the screen with beautiful colours in one instance, and then drab, darkened colours in another. Even the jumpy timelines work like I could never have imagined. Anyone who thinks they may end up confusing one time for another will be pleasantly surprised. You would have never expected this was a film primarily made by a group of British filmmakers.
But the success of the film mainly hinges on Patel. Without question, he is the absolute best thing about the film. He may not have much experience, but he makes it look like he has acting for years. The emotion he conveys with his face is enough to make any American actor jealous. It is not quite method acting, but he says a lot without even uttering a word. Just watching his expression inside the train station late in the film is enough to make anyone want to weep. He gives just enough emphasis in the areas needed, and stands back and watches everyone else do the same in other instances. This is someone who has a lot of promise, and I would be surprised if he does not walk off with a nomination later this week. He has a lot of promise, and I can only hope he continues after such an amazing performance.
The rest of the supporting cast, experienced or not, do a great job with their characters. I would have liked to see a bit more from Mittal, but sadly, his character is already beyond developed by the time he gets to him. Irrfan Khan gives the right amount of menace as the Police Inspector questioning Jamal, and Anil Kapoor does a great job as the skeptical and shady game show host.
While the acclaim comes easy, the film does have a few faults. The character of Latika is way too underwritten. We understand early on the bond Jamal has with his fellow orphan, but we never understand any of her motivations or development. She is simply the girl who was there, and who he continued to pine after years later. The themes of fantasy and love are inherent at the very core of Slumdog Millionaire, but with how much we learn about Jamal and Salim, it seems like a bit of a cheat to not really learn much outside of the one-dimensional traits of Latika. Hell, there was more description and volume to the bad guys they encounter than there was for her. I will admit however, that Freida Pinto does an excellent job as the adult Latika, portraying her with plenty of finesse.
It is also easy to come down on how much seems to be left to the imagination, or is merely explained in a sentence (how he even managed to get on the show stays a mystery), but the film compacts down so much that it becomes easy to forget what is not mentioned, and even easier to forget what was. Its two hour running time is by no means breezy (nor is it as agonizingly boring as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), but it lacks the ability to feel cohesive at the end. Not everything gels together. Fantasy or not, it leaves a little too much out. As much as I enjoyed it, it feels incomplete in certain areas, like it wanted to accomplish even more if it had the money or the resources.
Slumdog Millionaire is an excellently well done film, worthy of all the recognition it is getting. It may not be perfect, but this fantasy-adventure will draw you in like no other. The film excels where very few did in 2008, and is truly one of the best films of the year. This is not a film that will easily be forgotten.
9/10.