Slumdog Millionaire: STARK REALISM OF WORLD POVERTY IN THE UNDERSIDE OF BOLLYWOOD. Director: DANNY BOYLE

Danny Boyle has gone to the slums of Mumbai for this picture about the lives and fortunes of three orphans struggling to survive and escape the terrible reality of life in an Indian slum. The story involves three children, two bothers Jamal and Salim, and Latika a girl, from the ages of five or six until adult hood. Boyle pulls no punches in depicting the realities of their lives and the lives of other children caught in similar circumstances. One of the other orphans who has a good singing voice is deliberately blinded to increase his revenue from begging by a Fagin like character.

Boyle’s film is based on a novel by Vikas Swarup.

The writer has encapsulated Jamal’s story in flashbacks while he is a contestant on the Indian version of “Do You Want to Be a Millionaire”? Improbably, he is able to answer difficult questions by remembering his life experiences on the streets of India. This format and the fact it is coupled with his quest to find and rescue Latika, who in the end has turned into a beautiful young woman sold in to prostitution by the Fagin like character. All this creates a narrative tension and romantic quest in the film and along with the superb acting by the children and other characters makes the film worth watching. The actors are unknowns in this country so it is a story driven film.

Had this film not been done skillfully by Boyle it would have been notable but not commercially viable in today’s market. It would have been another fine Indie film unable to secure a theatrical release or perhaps not even a DVD one, doomed to the backwaters of our, action, adventure, celebrity, cartoon film culture of “tales full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”

As it stands now it is not in the top twenty earners probably because of the gritty realism and limited release in selected theaters.

This film makes a strong statement against the injustice of poverty particularly on children in Mumbai and in the third world countries of the world.

The story is engrossing and one never finds he is losing interest or wishing the story would end prematurely. The cinematography is in color, is excellent and cut to keep you visually on the edge of your seat. All in all it is on the level of films that are considered for an Academy Award and will be a classic as time goes on if it is not already.

Labels: Slumdog Millionaire