Slumdog Millionaire

I had read an article in the SMH suggesting that viewers in India, where the film is set, might not enjoy the movie because it depicts the terrible Western idealisation of ‘happy’ slum-life. Western ideas about ‘happiness’ and the way that we seem to be constantly in pursuit of it but rarely attaining it run rampant in weekend papers. There is always some article chiding us to look to poor underdeveloped countries such as Bhutan where ‘life is simple’ and people are happy. These articles are patronising and, frankly, hypocritical. If the writer truly believes that life in a place like Bhutan would make us happy, why does s/he not go and live there? Therefore I was quite apprehensive going to see this movie because I cannot stand Hollywood films that depict poverty as a ‘simple but happy life’.

I think Slumdog Millionaire managed to avoid this cliché reasonably well. In fact, life in a slum look decidedly horrific in many, many scenes—in particular the one where the whole (Muslim) slum area is attacked by a pack of violent men intent on killing any person of the Muslim faith in their path.

The main character is Jamal. We meet him when he is a young man competing on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’. With each question he is led back into his past and this is how the story of his childhood and love for Latika is related to us. It is a brilliant framework for telling a story and we find ourselves shifting comfortably between the past and the present television studio until the end when the two collide.

The first question takes us back to Jamal and his older brother Salim as small children trying to make a living and go to school in a slum in Bombay. After the religious attack on his slum during which he witnesses the killing of his mother, he and his brother become street children and are joined by Latika, a little girl also orphaned after the attack. They become the ‘Three Musketeers’ until they are kidnapped and forced into the begging trade by a man so evil it makes your stomach turn.

Latika becomes separated from them but Jamal does not forget her. The middle of the movie follows the two brothers trying to make ends meet—riding from train to train, eating and stealing whatever they can. Theirs is a nomadic and hand-to-mouth survival existence. They eventually make their way back to Bombay because Jamal wants to find Latika. Salim, who has always had a nasty streak in him turns against his brother and becomes a gun-toting gang member. The climax of the story is suspenseful and very Bollywood-esque.

Overall the movie is a combination of Bollywood and art-house Hollywood. The romance between Jamal and Latika was unbelievable, mainly because they were children when they separated. The acting by the adult characters was exaggerated too—I don’t watch Bollywood movies, but I guess this is a characteristic of the Bollywood genre. Unfortunately I did not like Jamal—the older he got the more macho and exaggerated his behaviour became.

Despite its minimal shortcomings, I recommend it for its entertainment value.