*http://www.apunkachoice.com/happenings/20081101-0.html* ** *Danny Boyle's movie **Slumdog Millionaire*<http://www.apunkachoice.com/dyn/movies/english/slumdog_millionaire/> * , set in Mumbai, has been received very well at the London Film Festival which closed on Thursday night.
*Not many people had expected that a film with a very unusual theme and unknown actors could become a smash hit at the London Film Fest. But that is how 'Slumdog Millionaire', a film based on Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup's award winning novel 'Q&A', has been received. In its review, The Daily Telegraph on Friday said, "The London Film Festival could hardly have ended in more rousing style. Its closing film, Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire', was one of a kind liable to send audiences happily skipping out into the cold London night. Yet on paper this British production, partly subtitled and with no stars known in the West, looked an unlikely prospect." In the two-hour long film, UK-based actor Dev Patel plays an orphan from slums, while Bollywood superstar Anil Kapoor<http://www.apunkachoice.com/celebrities/anil_kapoor/>plays Prem, the quiz master of a TV show. Other well known actor in the film is Irrfan Khan<http://www.apunkachoice.com/celebrities/irrfan_khan/>, who plays the role of an Inspector. The film is set in Mumbai, where Jamal (Dev Patel), an 18-year-old orphan from the slums, has reached the final question on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Astonishingly, he is about to win USD 20 million: but how can a poor uneducated boy have known the answer to 15 tough questions? That's a loaded question. Cheating is the obvious answer, which is why in early scenes Jamal is interrogated brutally by the police. Yet in an ingenious series of flashbacks pinpointing pivotal events in Jamal's short life, the audiences learn how Jamal came by the knowledge to answer those highly specific questions. -- regards, Vithur
