Slumdog Millionaire may be the first Western film to get India right.
It is still rare in English-language films to see India on screen when the film isn't a documentary and the characters aren't malnourished children. Non-Indian films either have Indian culture measured out and delivered without thought to context, or gaudily splashed around to add "color" to an otherwise drab plot.
Lately there has been a spate of movies produced in the West with solidly Indian themes, casts and plots from filmmakers such as Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited). However, these films, though highly acclaimed and pioneering works, suffer from these same as well as related flaws.
Slumdog Millionaire can safely be called the very first film to get it right. Although the entire movie was shot in India with an all-Indian cast and Indian themes, director Danny Boyle creates a movie that comes across as being much less ostentatiously Indian, or even "foreign" for that matter, than its genre predecessors. Some of this is due to his innovative presentation of subtitles during a quarter of the movie's dialogue, which is in Hindi.
He is thereby able to maintain comprehension without compromising the film's authenticity. More than by technique alone, though, Slumdog Millionaire can be universally appreciated because at its heart is a moving love story. The cultural trappings fall away at this level, and the film is reduced to its emotional fundamentals - its Indian-ness becomes incidental.
At the movie's outset, a teenage Jamal, the titular "slumdog," is the latest contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? He is on his penultimate question on the game show when he is arrested and brought in for questioning. According to the police, a mere "slumdog" could never be intelligent enough to win the game's top prize. Instances like this bring out the movie's darker theme about prejudice and its innocent victims.
Jamal grew up with his elder brother, Salim, in a massive Mumbai slum, which Boyle shows with an unblinking camera. Life is far from easy on the wrong side of the tracks and Salim and Jamal try to earn some money and to get a little schooling while otherwise enjoying their childhood in between. Along the way they meet Latika, a young girl from the slums, who soon becomes Jamal's closest friend and, later, his love.
The film cuts between Jamal's present-day incarceration and his childhood, providing answers to how an illiterate and uneducated young boy could climb so high in a game that tests knowledge. As the film demonstrates, sometimes life is a better teacher than books.
Boyle's frenetic pace keeps the viewer on the edge of his seat through every twist and turn of Jamal's harrowing life story. The cinematography is somewhat reminiscent of Boyle's 1996 cult success, Trainspotting, and succeeds in enhancing the drama, leaving the viewer with some well-shot iconic moments.
Some of the opening scenes take the viewer on a whirlwind tour of Mumbai's slums as police chase a young Salim and Jamal. With a bouncing camera, sharp cutaways, as well as his famous wide shots (28 Days Later) Boyle is able to reflect artistically the surrounding chaos of the slum.
Most viewers and filmmakers see any depictions of India's extreme poverty and become overwhelmed by thoughts of poor suffering children. Consciences duly pricked, they may open their hearts and wallets in an attempt to remedy it. However, this understanding of poverty does not leave any room for its brighter side. Yes, it is terrible for a child to have to grow up in such extremely meager circumstances, but at this point, where most viewers and filmmakers would stop thinking, Slumdog Millionaire powers onward and refocuses on the fierce human will to live and love through the misery.
Poverty does not overpower the story of the impoverished. This allows the audience to see past the hardship and violence that surround Jamal, Salim and Latika, to laugh with them and to cheer them on, all the while falling in love with their plucky heroism. Slumdog Millionaire has done a service to the genre and can't be missed.
