Slumdog Millionaire
There are advantages and disadvantages to the publishing schedule that The Connoisseurs employs. With new content every month, give or take a week, many of my reviews don’t reach readers until a week or two after a release event. On the other hand it also affords me the great luxury of seeing what others have to say and try to give my own article a different spin, to make it more of a discussion than just another plot summary. And watching the way people have talked about Slumdog Millionaire has been particularly interesting, it’s like the Little Miss Sunshine and Juno backlash in fast forward. Pretty much everyone has the same thing to say of course… “This movie entertained me immensely but the more I think about it the more its glamour wears off”. I understand those who are moved to dislike this film due to its ethical ambiguity (some consider it’s portrayal of poverty to be exploitative) or its plot contrivances (which is odd, since the movie is about destiny and luck) but then there is this entirely separate group of critics fighting over crumbs of snob credibility. They are trying to discount the movies merits because it has a “mainstream” director, because it has western money, because it has competent marketing and because it is easy to enjoy. Some have even gone so far as to accuse it of being a safe and predictable kiddy flick, which is a particularly large leap of logic given the movies themes of sectarian violence, prostitution, mutilation, poverty, torture and murder.
For the few who have not yet seen this film and who actually care about my opinion, just bear with me while I sketch out the plot. Jamal Malik (played by Dev Patel and Ayush Mehesh Khedekar in the present and past respectively) is an orphan from the destitute slums of Mumbai who has somehow landed an appearance on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. The producers simply can’t believe that somebody from the slums would know the answer to the questions on the show, so they have him arrested and violently interrogated to see if he is cheating. This interrogation acts as the framing device that dislodges flashbacks from Jamal’s childhood, as he shares the tough life lessons that ironically taught him the answers he needed to succeed on the quiz show. Also you eventually realize that his motivation is not riches, but to reunite himself with the beautiful Latika (Freida Pinto) who he has loved since he was a child.
Now all this zips by at an incredibly fast pace, with a short story behind each question and a sub plot involving the hero’s brother Salim and his evolution from clever street urchin to mob enforcer. From its score to its photography, I found just about every facet of this movie enjoyable; including its east panders to west attitude. This was not necessarily a movie about a westerners take on
