Slumdog Millionaire
 
reviewed by Mischa
Hayek
Photo © Fox Searchlight Pictures
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A wonderful film, and my pick for Best Movie of 2008, Slumdog
Millionaire, codirected by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan, tells the remarkable story
of three children orphaned during India’s Muslim-Hindu riots of the 1990s, who grow
up on their own in the Mumbai slum of Dharavi. The story is told through the eyes of
18-year-old Jamal K. Malik (Dev Patel), as he’s being beaten and tortured at a police
station for suspected cheating on the Indian version of the TV game show Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire. It’s at the end of Jamal’s first day on the show, and
despite having had almost no education, he has been able to amass a small fortune by
correctly answering a series of increasingly difficult trivia questions. With only one
question remaining, Jamal can walk away with over 60 million rupees. His explanations to
his interrogators of how he knew the answers provide windows through which we see, via
flashbacks, how Jamal and his older brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), survived the slums,
and of the hardships endured by their childhood friend Latika (Freida Pinto), with whom
Jamal is now in love.
| Dharavi Mumbai’s Dharavi neighborhood, where Slumdog is set, is
Asia’s largest slum. As of 2005, more than 800,000 people were living in Dharavi,
crammed into only 1.75 square kilometers. Formerly a mangrove swamp, the marshes of
Dharavi dried up nearly a century ago, and several former islands joined together to form
the island city of Bombay (now known as Mumbai).
Dharavi contains over 15,000 one-room factories and, with a
thriving recycling business, is quite industrious compared to many other areas of Mumbai.
Rents are as low as $4 USD per month, but the water supply is inadequate, and with only
one toilet per 1440 inhabitants, contagious diseases are common, especially during monsoon
season.
But Dharavi is by no means the world’s largest slum --
it is tied for 15th place. The largest slums in the world are in Mexico City, where 4
million people live in the Neza, Chalco, and Izta slums. Second is Libertador, in Caracas,
Venezuela, with over 2.2 million inhabitants.
. . . Mischa
Hayek |
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Scripted by Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog was based on the
award-winning novel Q&A, by former diplomat Vikas Swarup. Slumdog had a
very limited American release, to smaller theaters and repertory film houses, in early
November 2008, but persistent word-of-mouth finally convinced executives to release it
nationwide in late January.
Slumdog may not be of epic length at exactly two
hours, but as it traces the lives of the three children through countless trials and
dangers over a decade, it feels like a genuine epic. The varying ages of each child
are played by three different actors, several of whom were living in the slums prior to
being cast. Filmed entirely on location in Mumbai, Slumdog feels authentic in its
depiction of life in Dharavi and the harrowing experiences of growing up in abject
poverty.
However, Doyle and Tandan’s film is uplifting. Slumdog
expertly melds themes borrowed from Bollywood films (India’s Hindi-language film
industry, based in Mumbai): love triangles, fated romances, reversals of fortune,
kidnappings, and victorious underdogs. Although later reflection revealed many movie
clichés, I was never aware of them while watching, so skillfully was the story told. In
fact, I was never sure that, other than Jamal, any of the children would survive to
adulthood, and remained guessing to the end what would happen to them.
If there is a message in Slumdog, it is that people
can survive their childhoods, and that, despite grim circumstances, one can find love and
happiness if one is persistent. Slumdog Millionaire is extraordinary, and one of
the best independent films to come along in ages. |
