Top British filmmaker Danny Boyle's new
Mumbai-based film "Slumdog Millionaire" won rave reviews Friday after
its screening at the close of the London Film Festival. Skip related content
The
movie follows a poor boy's rise to fortune as an unlikely contestant on
an Indian version of the hit television game show "Who Wants to be a
Millionaire," with the trials and tribulations of life in Mumbai's
slums as a backdrop.
The Independent newspaper hailed the British
filmmaker's collaboration with Bollywood megastar Anil Kapoor, saying
the movie even topped "Trainspotting," Boyle's 1996 hit which made the
young Briton's name.
"'Slumdog Millionaire' is an exhilarating
ride... with a wild energy that makes even 'Trainspotting' (Boyle's
calling card) look leaden-footed," the daily said.
The film
"looks a certain hit (and) suggests that collaborations can be of
mutual benefit and it is hard to think of many other recent British
movies that have the energy tapped here," it added.
The Times was
equally impressed, giving it four out of five stars after the screening
closed the London event on Thursday evening. "The fairytale power of
the film is in watching a city evolve through the eyes of a child," it
said.
"There's a comic poetry about it that feels totally in tune
with its Indian setting," its reviewer said, calling the movie a
"festival finale that puts a spring in your step and brings a tear to
the eye."
The movie tells of how slum orphan Jamal -- played by
London-born actor Dev Patel -- is just one question away from winning a
whopping 20 million rupees (400,000 dollars) when he is arrested on
suspicion of cheating.
Bollywood megastar Anil Kapoor, appearing
in his first English-language role, and newcomer Freida Pinto also star
in the film scripted by Simon Beaufoy ("The Full Monty") and inspired
by Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A."
The Daily Telegraph said the film was "one of a kind liable to send audiences
happily skipping out into the cold London night."
"Slumdog
Millionaire is that rarity, a populist, mainstream entertainment that
finds a way to deliver cheerful uplift to its audience without ever
insulting the intelligence. A terrific festival climax," it said.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20081031/ten-rave-reviews-for-boyle-s-mumbai-slum-a56114e.html
