Bracingly rude and lively
LIAM LACEY
November 12, 2008
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Directed by Danny Boyle
with Loveleen Tandan
Written by Simon Beaufoy
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Starring Dev Patel, Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto and Anil Kapoor
Classification: 14A
****
A prime example of a film-festival breakout film, Danny Boyle's Slumdog
Millionaire almost went to direct-to-DVD purgatory last summer. Then, after
back-to-back appearances at Telluride and the Toronto International
Film Festival, where it won the Cadillac People's Choice Award, the
film suddenly soared to the front ranks of Oscar contenders.
Slumdog Millionaire is skillful entertainment, with the
simple message that the most intense life experiences yield the
greatest education. Though the story elements are objectively
melodramatic - orphans thrown into the cruel world, brother against
brother, a long-delayed romance and a rags-to-riches journey - the film
feels bracingly rude, and as lively as a whirling kaleidoscope.
Crowd-pleasing, in this case, definitely isn't the same as nice.
Like Charles Dickens, Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy know
sentimentality is enlivened by a generous side order of brutality,
which we are introduced to in the first few scenes.
An 18-year-old boy, Jamal (Dev Patel), who works as a tea server, or
chai wallah, for a telephone marketing company, has somehow become the
last man standing on an Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Jamal is on his way to the ultimate prize of 20 million rupees and
his improbable success has captured the imagination of the entire
country. The show's grandly supercilious producer/host (Bollywood
veteran Anil Kapoor) is convinced that the kid is cheating. On the
night before the final question, he has the police arrest Jamal, string
him up and begin to torture him into telling the truth.
Unable to beat answers out of the suspect, the Indian inspector (Irfan Khan, of
A Mighty Heart)
sits him down for a talk. In the multistrand narrative, we move back
and forth from the interrogation room, the dazzling soundstage of the
TV program and a series of flashbacks to Jamal's childhood, where he
calmly explains how each incident in his eventful life made him
uniquely prepared to answer the questions put to him.
Early scenes are in Hindi with subtitles (Boyle gave Indian casting
director Loveleen Tandan a co-directing credit for her work with the
child actors) as we follow how Jamal and his brother became orphans
when a mob killed his Muslim mother. Then, with his hellraising
brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), he begins a life of petty crime. He
also meets a willowy girl named Latika, who weaves in and out of his
life, but they are separated when the three run from a vicious
Fagin-like predator, who gouges children's eyes out to make them more
successful beggars.
Running is a constant motif in Slumdog Millionaire - and the element most
reminiscent of Boyle's breakthrough film, Trainspotting. The most exciting
scenes in Slumdog Millionaire are a series of high-adrenalin chases through the
swarming slums of
Mumbai. From the opening chase (accompanied by the Sri Lankan-English
pop artist M.I.A.) through the pervasive Indian soundtrack by A.R.
Rahman, the music has a fierce momentum, and the camera work from
Anthony Dod Mantle - in slow-motion, step-motion and wild camera angles
- is completely immersive.
The transition of the children to adolescents and then teenagers
(three different actors play each character) are seamless, though, as
the kids grow, the pace slows down and begins to feel a trifle more
mechanical. When the three amigos grow up and settle back in Mumbai,
Jamal takes odd jobs to survive, while pining for the beautiful Latika
(Freida Pinto), who is now a kept woman. Meanwhile, the increasingly
arrogant Salim becomes a soldier to a brutal gangster.
Slumdog Millionaire does the neat trick of making us both
ignore and subliminally enjoy the melodramatic manipulation,
distracting us with its multistrand plot and caffeinated editing,
before resolving on a predictable but satisfying conclusion.
Less obviously, the film also has an ace up its sleeve in the
performance of Patel, the sad-eyed, gentle British-born actor who plays
Jamal. In the spotlight of the TV cameras, the police interrogation or
slipping into the world of the wealthy as a subaltern, he has a quiet
observant presence. The story may stretch credibility until it's ready
to pop its seams, but Patel conveys the simple confidence of a prodigy
who has learned everything important in life, except how to lie.
