The jumble and hustle of modern-day India provides Danny Boyle’s electrifying new feature, Slumdog Millionaire . The Darwinian premise on the film is eloquent as the boy who attempts to become a millionaire on a television game show, rediscovers the love of life in the process. Boyle uses this extraordinary premise to paint a portrait of society built around ’survival of the fittest’, where betrayal is commonplace; greed and corruption are everywhere. Sounds like today’s American or British political scene and corporate mentality. But the movies are innocent. Tom Jones is Jamal, a poor, bright-eyed youth mischievously getting in and out of scrapes with his older brother, Salim.
In a turn of events, worthy of Hitchcock, the two youngsters’ lives change in front of their eyes when their mother is viciously killed during a riot. Alone, they turn to the streets, becoming “slumdogs.” A ray of sunshine comes into their lives when they befriend another orphan, the feisty young girl Latika, and soon the three are inseparable. Adventure follows as the trio learns to survive the cutthroat life of contemporary Indiabut at the cost of their friendship.
Years later, Jamal appears on India’s version of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Amazingly, he finds himself in the position of winning more and more prize money as the answers to the questions keep tumbling his way. But how can a “slumdog” with no formal education know the answers to these questions? Suspicions are raised, and Jamal quickly learns that the game show will be his biggest life test. Boyle’s film is a cinematic rollercoaster ride. Above all a romantic film, it is played out in a world where social, economic and political issues are never far. The young cast is superb, but it is Boyle’s dramatic smarts and feel for the heat, sweat and street life of Mumbai that transforms Slumdog Millionaire into a compelling and gripping cinematic experience. One can extrapolate from the film all sort of inferences for Life in a community.
Be it Hollywood or Corporate America or Government and even in the US presidential elections its Sarah Palin that is the ’slumdog millionaire’… that nobody in the establishment wants her to win. Yet the people are rooting for her big time. The Love of the underdog is ingrained in the simple people’s psyche mainly because they perceive themselves as that. This gives you an answer of what will happen in the US come November.Good on her.
This film is relevant today even in old Blightey; where Gordon Brown is looking at the Tories for inspiration. Stupid choice of view. Instead he should be looking North towards Manchester… and tose other blighted cities. If he has the guts to stand this view, pimples and all.
Cause in the South he ain’t got no chance. Here it’s really Borris Johnson who is the winner of the contest. He is undeniably the slumdog millionaire of London. Good on him.
