Gadget Source

Slumdog Millionaire brings to life a most unusual but plausible story of a young man who had to raise himself with his brother on the streets of Mumbai and deal with his affection and ever increasing love for a young woman who seems to be pitifully elusive. In addition, he must fight against the thugs and street gangs, one of which his brother eventually joins for excitement and money. Yes, on the surface it’s about a young man who is so good at the Indian TV version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” that the police torture him to make him reveal “his way of cheating” on the quiz show. However, this film goes so much deeper; we see his life in a series of flashbacks as he explains to the police just how he was actually able to know all the answers to the questions on the quiz show. In addition, the cinematography and the choreography lack nothing; I couldn’t ask for better. The casting was wonderfully done with great care and the acting is extremely convincing–wow, what a group of actors they had in this movie! The musical score enhances the movie as well.

When the action starts, we meet two young boys who are brothers, the very young Salim (Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail) and Jamal (Ayush Mahesh Khedekar). After they witness their mother being brutally killed by an angry mob, the two young boys are defenseless and they toughen up pretty quickly to adapt to being on their own, although Salim seems to do a little bit better at it. Salim is not afraid of much and he even sells his brother’s prized celebrity autograph merely because he wants the money for himself; when Jamal is upset about it Salim just smiles and says he got good money for it and so that makes it right. Already we are seeing Salim going to the wrong side of the tracks. Salim and Jamal also meet another orphaned child, Latika (Rubina Ali) and Jamal takes a liking to Latika almost immediately, he even feels that with a third kid they can be just like “The Three Musketeers!”

As time goes by we see the boys grow and develop; but Latika is sadly left behind when the boys climb aboard a moving train to escape the evil operator of an “orphanage” who likes to maim the youngsters who he forces to beg for money in the streets. Jamal misses Latika very, very badly but Salim just makes light of it; Jamal however is determined to find Latika and ultimately make her his own no matter low long his search for her takes. Eventually they do find Latika but Salim and Latika mysteriously spurn Jamal; and then it takes Jamal several years more to find Latika again. As adults, we see the grown Jamal (Dev Patel), Salim (Madhur Mittal) and Latika (Freida Pinto) coping with life and trying to work on relationships as best they can under horrible circumstances that I will not reveal here; I don’t want to give you any spoilers. Of course, what you do know is that Jamal makes it onto the quiz show and he is well on his way to winning a lot of money; he even gets around the game show host Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) who tries to throw Jamal off with a phony tip on the answer to the next question on the quiz show.

The rest is left for you to discover; but I shall say you won’t be bored. This is an excellent, poignant film that will leave you with quite a lasting impression. The extras on the DVD are quite well done, too. I especially liked the featurette entitled “Slumdog Dreams: Danny Boyle & The Making of Slumdog Millionaire.” There are optional audio commentaries by director Danny Boyle and Dev Patel and producer Christian Colson and writer Simon Beaufoy. We get deleted scenes, too.

Slumdog Millionaire makes a great addition to your DVD collection; it did win eight Academy Awards including the Oscar for Best Picture and that alone proves this movie is very, very special. There is a modicum of violence so if you’re turned off by that you may wish to reconsider; but the way this plays out is so artistic that you might just want to get this and enjoy it anyway.