A Film By Danny Boyle (Trainspotting,
28 Days Later)
Slumdog Millionaire follows Jamal Malik, a teenage
orphan from the ghettos of Mumbai who is one question away from
winning 20 million rupees on the Indian version of the trivia game
show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.
As a "slumdog," though, there are those who believe that Jamal
must have cheated to have come so far on the show, namely the
police.
As Jamal is relentlessly grilled by a no-nonsense police inspector
and his brutal, porcine subordinate, the young man relates how he
knew the answer to each question.
Proving that life experiences count for as much if not more than
learned knowledge, Jamal recounts how he and his older brother lost
their mother when they were children to an anti-Muslim mob. Left to
fend for themselves on the streets of Mumbai, Jamal and Salim turn
to hustling and petty crimes to survive.
Along the way they meet another young orphan, the fetching
Latika, whom Jamal falls in love with and will spend the next
several years chasing.
Slumdog Millionaire has as much heart as it does energy
-- and that's saying a lot -- skillfully managing to avoid being as
schmaltzy and formulaic as its premise might have allowed in the
hands of a lesser filmmaker. Heavy with humor, romance and
suspense, Slumdog Millionaire is one of the best and most
crowd-pleasing films of the year.