Slumdog Millionaire

Two months after it nearly swept the Oscars, I finally got around to watching Slumdog Millionaire this weekend. In all candor, I wasn't sure what to expect going into it, as I'd heard varying degrees of reaction to the film—ranging from a truly remarkable film to a mediocre film with an all-too-Hollywood ending. Frequent comparisons to City of God were made, as they both took place in the slums and revolved around the dichotomies of falling victim to the slum lifestyle or having what it takes to rise above the slum and escape. (Though comparing the two is like comparing apples to apples, so I'm not going to fall into that trap.)

The main character of the movie is Jamal Malik, a young "slumdog" who grew up on the streets of Bombay with his older brother Salim and a young girl they befriended named Latika. Now in his late teens/early twenties, Jamal has landed a spot on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," and has risen far beyond the point of any previous contestant on the show. The host, Prem Kumar, becomes very suspicious of Jamal, wondering how a kid from the slums could possibly know so much—even after he deliberately feeds Jamal an incorrect answer during a commercial break! So after an episode one night, he has Jamal arrested and tortured interrogated by the local police, who review with Jamal each and every answer he's made on the show, basically wondering how he could possibly know each answer. Jamal responds each time with a story of survival from his childhood in the slums, always revolving around a tragic event wherein he gained the knowledge to the "Millionaire" question.

For example, one of the questions was who composed a famous Indian song (the name of which escapes me). Jamal learned who wrote the song when he was very song, when he, Salim, and Latika were taken under the wing of someone named Maman . . . who turned out not to be a guardian angel but a gangster running a terrifying operation: he would find the homeless child with prettiest singing voice, and then blind him because blind homeless children brought in more money as beggars. The song Jamal was questioned about on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" was the one sung by his friend Javed just before he was blinded by Maman and put on the streets to collect beggars money.

Flashbacks like this served as good storytelling devices, but the fact that every answer on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" could be traced back to a gritty story from Jamal's childhood in the slums was just too convenient for me.

But aside of the main plotline (about how Jamal progresses on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"), there's also a very human story about Jamal's relationships between his brother Salim, with whom he's shared a very rocky relationship, and that with Latika, for whom Jamal has always carried of a torch. Since Jamal and Salim lost their mother in a religious riot when they were both very young, all they had for so many years was each other, though Salim was often very bullying and arrogant. Having not grown up with a sibling, I often find myself fascinated by the tumultuous relationships between brothers or sisters, and the evolution and disintegration of Jamal and Salim's relationship was the one thing that held my attention the most.

Jamal's lifelong pursuit of Latika, however, struck me as the movie's biggest flaw. I think this story arc could have been so much more powerful if Jamal had in fact lost Latika by the film's end, rather than get the girl against all odds. The way I see it, had Latika suffered the same fate as Salim, then Jamal would have lost everything in his life, and his struggle on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," with all of India cheering him on, would have been that much more inspiring as a result.

Overall, Slumdog Millionaire was a good movie with an engaging story, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a great movie. It was a very well-made film, but it didn't speak to me the way that, say, There Will Be Blood or To Kill a Mockingbird did. Nevertheless, Slumdog Millionaire took home eight golden statues at this year's Oscar ceremony, and was the heavy favorite for Best Picture going into the show. Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning direction was fabulous, as was the cinematography. Two of its songs, "O Saya" and "Jai Ho", were nominated for Best Original Song. "Jai Ho" was crowned the winner, though I personally liked "O Saya" better. I can't say that Slumdog was more or less deserving to win Best Picture than any of the other nominees this year (largely because the only other one I've seen is Frost/Nixon), but I still give Slumdog Millionaire a 7 out of 10. A good movie, but not a great movie. Not a Best Picture winner that's on the same level as The Godfather, The Silence of the Lambs, or Casablanca.