Slumdog Millionaire - Movie Review

British director Danny Boyle takes another intriguing career turn with this heartfelt tale of the underdog. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is a street kid (or ”slumdog”) who appears on India’s version of the hit TV game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”. Jamal does well in the show, and the producers suspect that he may have cheated and contact the police. The young contestant is subsequently arrested and is interrogated by a nameless police inspector (played by Bollywood star Irfan Khan). As the interrogation proceeds, Jamal’s harsh story is told through harrowing flashbacks which explain how he came to know the answers to the show’s questions. The contrast between Jamal’s upbringing and his chance of escaping it via the show is adeptly shown. Jamal and his violent brother Salim get into a succession of challenging situations, and the film runs the full gamut of emotions as we see the brothers growing up, falling in love and coming close to death, with Jamal finally teetering on the brink of escaping his terrible predicament.
The film belongs to the cast, who are mostly unknown outside India, and Dev Patel produces a startlingly mature performance as Jamal.

Comments on the film from cinema goers –

“Whoever thought that a movie that begins with torture would turn out to be an anthem to friendship and joy”.

“Slumdog Millionaire is as ascerbic as it is clear-eyed about the brutal power dynamics in modern day Mumbai. But, at the same time, the story is so heartwarming and is the reason it has been inspiring audiences all across the world to cheer at its rousing ending.”

“Locates the lamplight of human desire and proves that it burns all across the world, no matter circumstance, ethnicity or religion…”

The film, which is being released in both English and Hindi, has been nominated for numerous prestigious awards, and has also already been given many notable awards, including:

Directors’ Guild of America Award for Best Director.
Danny Boyle beat nominees David Fincher, Gus van Sant and Ron Howard to achieve the Best Director Award, 2009.

Golden Globe Awards
Slumdog Millionaire was awarded Golden Globes for the categories Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Soundtrack. Indian composer A R Rahman’s Golden Globe for the best musical score was seen as rare recognition for Indian talent by Hollywood.

Screen Actors Guild Awards
The film topped the category for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Producers Guild of America
The Producers Guild of America honoured Slumdog Millionaire producer Christian Colson with its top film award.

British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA)
In a glittering ceremony in London on 8th February, the film was awarded no less than 7 awards by the prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Music, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Sound.

Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, otherwise known as the ‘Oscars’ will take place in Hollywood on 22nd February 2009, and Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated for 11 awards, including: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Fil Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best original Score, Best Original Song and Best Directing.

Slumdog Millionaire Actors

Dev Patel, who has won much critical acclaim for his performance in Slumdog Millionaire said he landed the role after director Danny Boyle could not find an Indian actor to play the young slum-dweller Jamal.
"Most Indian actors of my age want to be Bollywood stars, so they spend their time honing their bodies for beefcake roles. Danny wanted someone ordinary, like me. So that’s how I found myself in the lead," said the young star in an interview with the Daily Mail. Patel, who is a British citizen of Indian origin, plays the lead, Jamal, in the film, along with Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan. This is Patel’s first film and the actor, who according to Boyle has the potential to be the ‘next Michael Sheen’, said that he didn’t think he stood a chance at getting the role while auditioning.
"I’m as bewildered and star-struck as any other teenager could get in the situation I am in now," he said.
And with Slumdog, Patel has been removed from obscurity and is on a headlong journey to fame and fortune as the film is on an award-winning spree. It has already bagged four Golden Globe awards.
"I’ve been living two different lives," said Patel, adding that his family helps him keep grounded.
"By day, I’ve got the leading role in a movie, in spite of having no acting training and very little experience.
And at night I go home and my mum is telling me to make my bed, keep my room tidy and help with the washing-up. It keeps my feet on the ground, stops me from letting it all go to my head," he said.

Irfan Khan was born in Jaipur, India. He was studying for his M.A. degree when he won a fellowship to the (NSD) National School of Drama in 1984. After graduating in 1987, he moved to Mumbai. Theater and various television roles kept him afloat until his cameo performance in "Salaam Bombay". Sadly the role was edited out of the final copy and he was never seen!
He continued to dabble in television making impacts on various soaps and tele-historical series. To break away from television, Irfan featured in a few mainstream movies but none of them were box-office successes.
His fortunes changed when Landon based director Asif Kapadia gave him the lead in "The Warrior", an historical film completed in 11 weeks on location in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
"The Warrior" won international film festival interest and brought Irfan Khan to public notice. His first Bollywood main lead role came in the movie "Rog".
His most recent success is in the award winning movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ in which he plays the police inspector who interrogates the young game show winner Jamal.
He is married to writer Sutapa Sikdar who's also a NSD graduate and they have a son named Babil