Indian Love Story

Rating: 5/10 (8 July 2010)

Slumdog Millionaire tells a fairy tale of a young Indian "slumdog" (i. e. slum dweller) who wins his childhood love, alongside a handsome cash prize of two million rupees, through the Indian edition of the internationally popular game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?". With each question, we get to see another chapter from his life, starting as a young kid working on a skip, until we return to the present of him working as a humble chai wallah (the Indian male version of a tea and cakes lady) in a call center.
I'm a big fan of Danny Boyle, and as usual his visual style packs a lot of punch. But this time the story is terribly thin and cheesy. Romantic as it may be, I don't buy that someone can fall in love at the age of about 6, and for this love to work when he's a young man. And I don't buy that someone who barely learned to read and write can win the jackpot at WWTBAM.
That's not "modern fairy tale", that's just bad storytelling. Sorry.