Anything is possible with this movie!

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2011)

Jamal, played by Dev Patel, is an uneducated young man from the slums of Mumbai. The film opens with Jamal being tortured for the suspected cheating as a contestant on India's version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?". On the shows first taping he has answered all the questions correct and is one away from winning the prize of 20 million rupees. Before the police take him back to the second taping, they question him on how he knew the answers to all the questions when the smartest people in the country wouldn't even be able to answer them. From here the movie follows Jamal, remembering how he knew the answers, and his older brother, Salim, played by Madhur Mittal, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail; from young boys to the young men they are today.
The brothers grow up on the streets of developing India, raising themselves, struggling to survive. Although they experienced the same hardships the two brothers have completely different personalities: Jamal is naive and loving and Salim is angry and jealous. The boys meet another homeless child, a girl named Latika, played as an adult by Freida Pinto. Jamal falls in love with her while Salim feels threatened by the feelings Jamal has for her. The film follows the triangle of these three and the intensity of their relationships.
The film is similar to Pretty Woman, a "rags to riches" story where the main character overcomes hardships to get everything they want. Slumdog Millionaire follows the theme that anything is possible. When Jamal was a young boy, his favorite actor was landing near the slums in a helicopter, and Salim locked him in an outhouse. Jamal did the unthinkable and jumped into the hole people use to go to the bathroom, just to be able to see his idol. Anything is possible; sometimes you just have to be willing to get a little dirty to accomplish your goal. In another scene, Salim also purposely didn't help Lakita escape on a train, leaving her in the hands of bad men, possibly never to be seen again. However, against all odds, Jamal found her again years later.
The camera angles make you feel like you are with the brothers embarking on a fast paced journey where anything is possible. The sounds of the city come to life with all the sound effects: crowd noises in the busy markets, children crying, and vehicles honking, etc. In one scene when the boys fall from a train you can hear the dirt fly as they hit the ground.
India is almost a character itself in the movie; you get to see up close where the boys live in the slums around poverty. You also see the Taj Mahal, and all the beauty that surrounds its landscape. In one scene when the film flashes to various groups of people watching the show and cheering for Jamal, you see different walks of life all wanting to believe that anything is possible. You want to believe that a boy from the slums can survive poverty as a child, become a millionaire, and get the girl of his dreams.