Initially I wondered if the film would feel rather fragmented – after all, it must be difficult to explain how a boy knows all the answers to Who Wants to be a Millionaire and make a coherent whole. I needn’t have worried though. I can’t think of many films that manage to fit violence, swearing, laughs, travel, a love story and a torture scene together and leave you feeling great by the end of it all.

The three central characters, Jamal (Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Tanay Hemant Chheda, Dev Patel), Salim (Azharuddin Mo. Ismael, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Madhur Mittal) and Latika (Rubina Ali, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, Freida Pinto) are born slumdogs, gradually working and thieving their way through adolescence. We watch them grow up and witness the answers to the game show’s questions in between snippets of Jamal’s appearance on the show itself, hosted by the slimy Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor).

Having never been to India it’s difficult for me to say how accurate some parts are. Ultimately the story is sheer make-believe, but I got the feeling that despite Boyle’s endearingly whimsical storytelling I was also seeing parts of the real India, with energetic backdrops, interesting and diverse characters and clever situations.

The score compliments the film nicely – during the action sequences your pulse pounds along to the drums and M.I.A. provides two fitting tracks – most notably Paper Planes when Jamal and his brother Salim are riding around on the tops of trains.

I mentioned a few posts back that some consider this film to be a return to form for Danny Boyle. While I’m not going to retract my comment when I said he’d never left, I would like to point out that this film has much more heart than both Sunshine and 28 Days Later. It has a great deal more in common with Trainspotting (although ultimately this is less harrowing) and Millions.

Stay for the excellent credits sequence by the way – most people in the cinema did (such is the film’s enchantment over the viewer). Go see it, it’s something special!

Expect a follow-up post in the next day or two dedicated to Danny Boyle’s films to date.

M.I.A.’s Paper Planes:

Slumdog Millionaire sees the slum-dwelling Jamal Malik (Dev Patel of Skins fame) as a contestant on the Hindi version of Who Wants to be A Millionaire?. As there have been many real-life instances in which professors and the like have cheated to get on the show in India, it’s been made considerably more difficult, with questions on advanced physics popping up early on. For this reason when Jamal starts to win, suspicions arise and the story of how he comes to know the answers unfolds. I’m gonna try and see this pretty sharpish because apart from being by one of my favourite directors it sounds like just the ticket to lift the spirits at this rather grim time of year.

Completely unrelated, here are two little clips of stand-ups talking about Australia and the Australian accent, courtesy of a Polish friend. Pretty funny stuff: