In early 2009 I was stunned by a cinematic experience so
bright, colourful, exciting and interesting that I saw the movie twice within a
week. The film was Slumdog Millionaire
and a month later it won seven BAFTAS and eight Oscars including the big one,
Best Picture. The film is a somewhat fantastical but highly engaging story of
love, hardship and fortune told from the point of view of young Mumbai tea boy
Jamal Malik (Dev Patel). Through his eyes we are told the story of his eighteen
years and of his continuing search for his lost love Latika (Freida Pinto). In
the hope that she sees him, Jamal becomes a contestant on India’s highest
rated game show Who Wants to be a
Millionaire but when he fortuitously answers several difficult questions
correctly the host (Anil Kapoor) and Police (Irrfan Khan) want their own
answers, most pressingly how he knows what he knows.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that I love this movie. I
love everything about it from the direction, the soundtrack and the story to
the cute child actors and cute adult actors (Pinto). After my initial double
viewing I didn’t see the film again until today, over four years later. As soon
as the titles rolled I got the little tingle that I got on my first viewing and
by the end I was sure that my affection for the film hadn’t diminished at all.
