SlumdogMillionaire
Intense
and Interesting
Nilda F. Andrews
Slumdog Millionaire – Fox
Searchlight Pictures, 20th Century Fox’s division of
independent films has done it again by producing a riveting tale of the
unlikeliest of candidates. A former Mumbai (then called Bombay) street
beggar, becoming a local television hero by correctly answering the game
show host’s questions and steadily climbing the ladder of rupee
winnings. Convinced that Jamal Malik (played by Dev Patel)
is cheating, the host has him thrown in jail. Even though
tortured, he refuses to confess because as he says, “I knew the
answers.” He then tells the police inspector how he
knew how to respond to the questions India’s version of Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire presented him. As he
explains, his life unfolds in a sequence of flashbacks.
Misfortunes
of Existence
The
camera pans on a gang of young boys playing on what looks like a large
playing field when a swarm of policemen begin shouting and chasing the
boys. It is Mumbai’s airport landing field. The
boys scatter every which way—the police close behind…so begins the
story of Jamal and his brother Salim and the misfortunes of
their existence.
To add to their plight, extremists, who are
“cleansing” the slum of Muslims, kill their mother. Now orphaned, they
allow a young girl who has suffered the same fate join them. They then
go where the impoverished gather to find whatever they can to
survive—whether it is rotting food, tattered clothing or trinkets they
can sell—the massive garbage dump of Mumbai. It is a staggering scene,
all the more so, because it is a reality of life. There is
also a sequence straight out of Dickens’ Oliver Twist. The
trio is hoodwinked into thinking they are going to an orphanage only to
find they are pawns in a street beggar’s scheme where the bounty is
handed over to the thugs running it. One scene is too
brutal to watch.
Calculating and Contemptuous
The game show is the
necessary hook to make the story succeed, but I found myself wondering
if Meredith Vieira is as calculating and contemptuous as portrayed by
Anil Kapoor’s character. And, what justification did he
have in getting Jamal arrested. Improbably, each game show
question is related to an incident in Jamal’s life. It
seems like the writer’s manipulative tactic to develop his story.
These are kitchen questions, but in the end, they were minimized
into the sphere of suspension of disbelief. The movie
works because the flashbacks are so intense and interesting that you
want to know more and cannot fathom how he has survived. And, you want
him to.
Personal
Reflection
Seeing this
movie on the heels of India’s latest tragedy in present-day Mumbai gave
me pause to reflect on not only the senselessness of the terrorists’
motives in killing innocent victims, but also on the senselessness of
the poverty that surrounds those same posh 5-star hotels. I
cannot equate the murder of guiltless persons with the destitution of
poverty-stricken individuals as portrayed in the film, but there seems
to be a paradox about the cruelty humans inflict on one another—in one
case deliberately and in the other as a result of being born into the
lower echelons of a society.
Good
Pace and Very Satisfying
by Ron
Smith
Orphaned in the Slums Of India
This is the story of a
young man, 18-year-old Jamal Malik. He is an orphan who grew up in the
terrible slums of Mumbai, India.
The movie starts as Jamal is being tortured with
electric shock, water board and other horrendous devices.
We soon find out his only crime is
that he is one question away from winning 20,000,000 Rupees on the game
show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? That’s $403,429 American
dollars. In today’s dollars, tomorrow?
Arrested For Fraud
Jamal is in the police
station and has been arrested for fraud. After all, how could a Slumdog
orphan know the answer to the questions that have been asked? Not
even the
most educated contestant in the history of the show has gotten
as far as Jamal. He must be cheating right? But how? The police will
get to the truth even if it kills Jamal.
A Tale of Misery and Sorrow
The story unfolds with
Jamal chained to a chair in the police station as a video of the show is
playing on the television. In between questions on the screen Jamal
tells his story of how he knows the answers, the story flashbacks to the
story and back to the present throughout the film. I learned in
screenwriting that flashbacks slow the story down, but in this movie
they keep you on the edge of your seat, every scene keeps you glued to
the screen.
Gotta
pee? Too bad.
Jamal weaves a tale of misery, sorrow, love lost and
found and lost again and even a little laughter. The police cannot
figure out how Jamal is cheating, so he goes back to the T.V. station to
answer the final question to win or lose the big money and fame.
Remember when Lucy
Ricardo had her baby and every T.V. in America was tuned to the show?
Well every T.V. in India is tuned in to the show to see if Jamal answers
the final question and wins the money. Every slum has a T.V on a
garbage heap or a dumpster, every fine restaurant, even in the police
station. And everyone is rooting for Jamal. Well not everyone, but
that’s in the story too.
But you know why Jamal is on the show? Not to win
the money, he could care less about the money, the reason he is there is
because…. Damn I shouldn’t have drunk all that water. You will have to
see this amazing movie for yourself to find out.
The acting is very
good; you connect with the characters and want them to succeed. The
story moves at a good pace and the life in India for children, and poor
people is something you have to see to believe. This is a very
satisfying movie. Stay for the credits.
Take your kids and the next time they complain
about not enough fries in the happy meal, SLAP EM!
This movie has
violence, strong language and sexual situations