Year of Release: 2008Country of Origin: UK
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto
Plot outline: A penniless, eighteen year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, Jamal Malik is one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's ''Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, suddenly, he is arrested on suspicion of cheating (IMDb).
Orphaned after his mother is killed during an anti-Muslim riot, seven-year-old Jamal Malik is left to fend for himself in a decidedly Dickensian Mumbai, where he, Salim and Latika soon find themselves working for a Fagin-ish exploitative villain. Danny Boyle’s relentless energy and kinetic style do a good job of glossing over that fact, making the movie feel much more substantial than it really is. But the good performances, brilliant editing, and pulsating soundtrack can’t cover up the movie’s crucial failure. The story revolves around Jamal and his love for Latika, a girl he meets when he’s just a boy. Before he can reach adolescence, they’re separated, and he spends the rest of his life searching for her, only to lose her yet again after one night once he does find her. From that point on, his whole life revolves around this girl, who he feels he’s meant to be with, but we, the audience, can’t understand why. She may have charmed Jamal, but she never charms us. In fact, we never find out anything about her, and so she remains just a pretty face. And thus, we reach the movie’s biggest conceit. That Latika is still the girl Jamal remembers from his youth. That they’re meant to be together despite knowing practically nothing about each other. That it’s not only okay, but even profitable, to live your life solely in pursuit of a single woman you don’t know. If you buy into this, you’ll go for it in a big way. The flash, the energy, and the feel-good nature are there in full force, capped off by a memorable closing-credits sequence. But if the conceit’s too great, then you’ll see it as a well-done fairy tale and nothing more. (FML, NS)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
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