Mumbai Teen Amazed to Discover Corrupt TV Show.

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2009)

There are two completely different story-lines taking place in Slumdog Millionaire, and they take place simultaneously and involve mostly all of the same people. Director Danny Boyle Has woven the stories together with such precision, such seamless skill that it presents an almost impossibly clear picture of this kid's life up to the point where he is a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire."
Jamal Malik grew up in a Mumbai slum and has lived a life of of devastating poverty and drastic heartbreak. As a child, he and his brother Salim formed a close friendship with a young girl named Latika, but the happy times they had together ended with a tragic separation that continued for many years. As an 18-year-old young man, Jamal found his way onto the Millionaire program, and a chaotic reunion with his brother and Latika ensued.
The sequence of events that led to Jamal's participation on the program and the reasons that he sought to be a contestant in the first place are major plot points that I don't want to reveal, but it seems a little unnecessary to do that anyway. t's nearly impossible to do justice to a movie like this by explaining plot points, so suffice it to say that Slumdog Millionaire is the intricate work of a master director at the top of his form.
He has created a story of ordinary people living in terrible poverty and extraordinary situations. There are no caricatures in the movie, every character is developed with such clarity that it's almost impossible to determine who the good guys and bad guys are because we understand how every character has come to be the person that he or she is.
The movie is told in a wildly unchronological order. The timelines are so mixed and blended that it is a spectacular feat in itself that Boyle has managed to craft such a compelling story and that it never becomes confusing. Many people were confused by Christopher Nolan's brilliant film Memento for much the same reason, and while I can't understand much criticism of that movie, I don't think Slumdog Millionaire will receive many of those kinds of complaints. Jumps back and forth in time and from one simultaneous story to another with such ease that it all feels completely natural.
It has been said that Danny Boyle has reinvented the crowdpleaser with Slumdog Millionaire, which is a pretty apt statement. It never once panders to anyone, it never compromises its integrity with weak, sugary plot developments, it doesn't even appear to have any influence whatsoever of the Hollywood machine. There is terrific payoff at various times, intertwined with heartbreaking disappointment and struggles. But probably best of all, it provides astonishing insight into the lives of the Indian people.
Jamal's young life took place in an slum of such complete destitution that the people almost seemed not to realize it was happening. The people are filthy poor, but its all they've ever known, and the way the kids play with such glee, it makes us understand that they don't view their lifestyle with the same understanding audience that those of us on the outside would.
For the full effect, Boyle juxtaposes this level of existence with the polished world of a successful television show, hosted by a man who is so incapable of accepting that a kid who came from this background could possibly know the answers to his questions. In fact, possibly the film's only real weakness, the thing that will be difficult for us to believe, is that every question asked by the show happens to coincide with remarkable accuracy to some traumatic incident in Jamal's life.
But that is a good part of the movie's message, as well. About 70% of India's population, which I believe is nearly 1.2 billion people, live in small, poor villages, probably not terribly unlike the one where Jamal and Samir and Latika grew up. Slumdog Millionaire is the story of one kid from one of those villages for whom, after a childhood of unbroken poverty and beggary, all of the stars finally aligned.