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'Slumdog Millionaire' richly conveys life in Mumbai
by Stephen Whitty/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday November 12, 2008, 10:00 PM
Dev Patel, left, and Freida Pinto in "Slumdog Millionaire."Slumdog Millionaire
(R) Fox Searchlight (120 min.)
Directed by Danny Boyle. With Dev Patel, Freida Pinto. In English and
Hindi, with English subtitles. Now playing at theaters in New York. THREE AND A
HALF STARS
The heady smells of turmeric and fenugreek and cumin -- and other,
less pleasant odors. The glitter of new high rises, stuffed with
corporate suits and condos -- and the shine of tin-roofed shacks. The
beat of tabla drums, the slap of bare feet running down ancient roads
-- and the sounds of pain, of poverty, or hopelessness.
This is modern Mumbai, and Danny Boyle's new "Slumdog Millionaire" catches both
its sides.
What
it also catches is its energy -- of its sudden change, of its young
population, of its Bollywood entertainments. And brings that to a
terrific and unusual story of three impoverished orphans -- slumdogs --
who grow up, suffer and yet inconceivably move on to a rich world of
game-shows and gangsters.
Both tragic and joyful, it's like a musically accented "Oliver Twist," a
lightly curried Frank Capra.
The story -- freely adapted from the novel by Vikas Swarup -- is
very clever. Jamal, a lowly teaboy at a call center, has just set an
improbable new record on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be a
Millionaire" -- and has been denounced as a fraud. So the police whisk
him away and demand to know how he had the answers.
And, in between beatings, he tells them.
Neatly, each of his correct replies corresponds to an event in his
life. A famous song? It was one he had to learn by heart, when a
ruthless gangster was training him to be a beggar. The face on a $100
bill? A denomination he once parted with, to learn what had happened to
his childhood love. And so the answers take us, in flashback, through
his life.
And each one in turns, asks its own question: What next?
Boyle has cast this with a variety of fine South Asian actors, most
unknown to Western audiences. Anil Kapoor, who plays the preening quiz
show host, is a busy Bollywood veteran; Irfan Khan, the police chief,
was also in "The Darjeeling Limited" and "A Mighty Heart." But it's the
young cast here -- particularly Dev Patel, who is Jamal as a teenager,
and Freida Pinto, who is his lost love -- who delight.
The bracingly youthful direction enchants as well. Boyle has always
been one of the most eclectic directors, skipping from black comedy to
sci-fi to horror; one of the most erratic, too, capable of not only
"Shallow Grave" or "28 Days Later," but "The Beach" and "A Life Less
Ordinary." He's really several different Danny Boyles, and "Slumdog
Millionaire" combines a few.
On one hand there's the rough-edged Boyle who relishes scenes of
people running breakneck through narrow streets, or graphically gross
bathroom moments, as in "Trainspotting"; on the other, there's the
nice-boy Boyle who really wants to believe in money-from-heaven
fortune, as in "Millions."
Both directors are on hand here, and at the top of their game.
The movie may take a little adjusting to. The music is very loud and
insistent; the camerawork is sometimes, literally dizzying, with angles
switching every which way. But then, like your tastebuds after the
second bite of a particularly hot vindaloo, your senses start to
adjust. The painful heat settles into pleasant warmth.
And the smells and sights and sounds of Mumbai come alive.
Ratings note: The film contains violence, strong language and adult situations.
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2008/11/slumdog_millionaire_richly_con.html
