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Slumdog Millionaire
Danny Boyle's story of an orphaned Indian boy who wins big that also swept the Oscars
The sheer sensual assault of Danny Boyle's latest offering is astonishing. Played out largely amid the squalor of Mumbai, the screen veritably reeks with the stench of rotting food, trash and stagnant water.
Amid this fetid landscape stands Jamal (Dev Patel), a chai wallah who, through a series of convolutions, ends up on the TV gameshow Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
We begin, in fact, with Jamal poised for the jackpot, but the story chooses to carry us back through Jamal's life, to the impoverished childhood amid India's slums (where he is played by Ayush Mahesh Khedekar), to a time when he and his brother witness the murder of their mother at the hands of an anti-Muslim rabble.
The two boys, along with another orphan - the quietly beautiful Latika (Rubina Ali in childhood, Freida Pinto in later years) - must make their way in the wide world together, and soon fall into foul and villainous hands.
The fascinating quality of Boyle's movie is the fact that the grimness and sorrow of this tale never truly surfaces. Instead, much in the manner of Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), we are left with a film that prefers to see the sunny side. Gorgeously shot and artfully scripted, this is a real triumph for Boyle. ·
