Three Musketeers from the slums of Mumbai

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2009)

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) is a very good movie with the astounding cinematography, virtuoso directing, and the heartbreaking yet optimistic story. The acting by three main characters especially by a newcomer, Dev Patel, is compelling. Patel plays a street kid Jamal Malik (Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who made it to the Indian version of the TV show Who wants to be a millionaire?" and keeps answering correctly every question. The secret is that every question represents a chapter of his own life, his growing up and surviving on the streets, his adventures and experiences often dramatic and even tragic. When he is just one question away from winning 20 million rupees (around $450,000), the time is up, and millions of TV-viewers who root for Jamal would have to wait for the following night to see him go for the big prize. Jamal is arrested by the police right after the game and he will spend the next day been rather brutally interrogated by police officers who want to find out how the street boy with no education can answer the difficult questions correctly. Fifteen years from the lives of Jamal, his older brother Salem and another orphan from the slums of Mumbai, "the third musketeer", the girl named Latika (Frieda Pinto), Jamal's true love since their childhood will reveal in flashbacks, and by the end of Jamal's story, it won't surprise us why he knows all answers. IMO, the only weak point in the story was the big 20 million rupees question. I won't reveal it but trust me, the whole reading or movie watching world knows the answer, and the question was too easy for such high stake BUT it fits the story very well, so I tend to be lenient.
The best part of the movie is IMO the look at India from within, the glorious views of India's beauty and horrifying captures of its unspeakable poverty, from the slums of Mumbai and the dizzyingly crowded streets of Bombay to the heavenly magnificent Taj Mahal.
Boyle's directing very much reminds Fernando Meirelles inspiring movie-making in Cidade de Deus aka City of God by its dynamism, fast and furious camera movements, and amazingly deep and compassionate understanding of the material. I won't be surprised if Doyle receives the Oscar nod for directing. He very well deserved it along with his camera-man, editor, writer, and the young actors.