Has its flaws but nevertheless a very good movie.

Rating: 8/10 (3 March 2009)

It must be admitted that this is a very good movie. Expecting to find an overrated, over-hyped piece of Hollywood bluster, instead this movie was riveting, evocative, well acted and upbeat. What a relief because whereas usually their is an inverse relationship between hype and artistic quality, here the relation is direct ... for once. The movie deals with a number of themes, poverty, love, crime, child abuse, and has a number of plots which are all woven together to produce a coherent and watchable work of art that restores confidence in the artistic credibility of commercial cinema. Most compelling was the effective use of flashbacks and the portrayal of the main characters as the audience observes their development. Although a high quality movie, it does have its faults. First, there is the scene where Hindus attack Moslems. This scene is entirely outside of the context of the story, more so since religion does not define the characters. Second, the child actors playing the older brother simply were not menacing looking enough to make their performances entirely believable. Third, the Taj Mahal scenes where the audience is supposed to believe in young kids passing themselves off as tourist guides was ludicrous. Fourth, how the main character manages to get onto the game show is not clearly explained. Fifth, by the end of the movie a huge slum had been cleared away with no explanation other than ... "we used to live there." Sixth, the questions on the game show were challenging but, considering the sum of money at stake, not overly difficult. Seventh, the use of torture to extract a confession was completely inconsistent with the nature of the alleged crime - cheating on a game show. The show could have told the young man to leave. Yet, despite all these shortcomings, the movie was entertaining, compelling, well acted and deserves praise.