A young man named Jamal (Dev Patel) sits in the Hot Seat, competing in India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He is a slumdog from the worst part of Mumbai, who has somehow gotten a job serving tea to tech support workers. The stage lights glare down at him, Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) – the extravagantly-dressed host of the show – hides his contempt for this piece of gutter trash behind a professional smile.
Jamal answers the question, staring straight ahead: "That is my final answer." Everyone waits with baited breath; the host expertly drawing out the tension. Will this slumdog break? Or has Jamal somehow managed to answer another question correctly?
"Congratulations, you have just won one million rupees." The crowd explodes with cheers. It is a Cinderella moment come to life. But there is a lifetime of pain behind the triumph, one that director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) brilliantly brings to life in his new film, Slumdog Millionaire.
Slumdog Millionaire: Brutal Cinderella Story
But Jamal's torment never seems to end, even when things seem to be going his way. Shortly before he is due to answer the final question, a suspicious police inspector (Irfan Khan) arrests him, convinced that Jamal is cheating in some way. After several hours of brutal questioning, Jamal holds to his story: "I just know the answers."
And the reasons why he knows those answers unfolds in his life story, which he shares with the police and the audience.
Slumdog Millionaire has an R-rating, and it more than earns that designation. Whether Jamal has to steal food to survive on India's mean streets, or escape from a Fagan-style character who deliberately mutilates children so they will earn more money for him, he knows his life is worth less than the shirt on his back. His brother Salim (Madhur Mittal) has given in to the brutality, becoming a gunman for a crime lord (Mahesh Manjrekar) and turning over Jamal's love Latika (Frieda Pinto) to his boss's less-than-tender mercies.
It's that Jamal still dares to hope – whether he can be with Latika or earn a better life for himself – that becomes the most shocking aspect of Slumdog Millionaire.
In one heartbreaking scene, he ties his mother's brutal murder at the hands of Hindu extremists to a question he answered correctly about Rama. "I wish I didn't know the answer to that question," he says, and the audience feels his pain.
The Final Analysis
Is Slumdog Millionaire (a) genius, (b) cheating, (c) luck or (d) fate? You'll need to see the movie to find out, but it is never less than compelling. 9/10
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
Join the Conversation