Genre : Drama
Year : 2008
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Danny Boyle
Cast : Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Irfan Khan, Anil Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla
Kid rating : PG
I only had the vaguest inkling of the story of “Slumdog millionaire”, having carefully not read any of the reviews. So, when it started out, brutally enough in a police lock-up with the protagonist Jamaal (Patel) being tortured, it seemed to be quite far away from the shiny small-screen glamour of “Kaun banega crorepati”, the game show which supposedly played a major part in the film. However, SM, as I discovered, was woven between the past and the present, taking us through Jamaal’s few hours of television fame, his subsequent police incarceration, and his past life as an orphan in Mumbai.
Jamaal has had the good fortune of being selected as a contestant on “Kaun banega crorepati (India’s version of “Who wants to be a millionaire”). A humble chai-wala, with no formal education, Jamaal still manages to answer all the questions which are thrown at him. When the game breaks for the day, the show’s influential host Prem (Kapoor), unable to believe that Jamaal is not cheating at the game, gets him whisked away by the police. During the police interrogation, we get to know Jamaal’s story, and the fact that Jamaal is on the show to get in touch with his lady-love Latika.
SM is a pretty upbeat film. It starts off amidst wretched poverty, showing very starkly the underbelly of great, shining India. And I, being desi and all, and watching SM in a very mainstream cinema theatre in a very American city, am squirming in my seat, thinking this is another of those films milking poor, exotic India for a shot at the Oscars. Although, really, it’s not.
It does make me uncomfortable, watching poor, naked children wallowing in filth, begging at the cross-roads, playing next to large garbage dumps, in one of the largest slums of a bustling, rich, cosmopolitan city in the country of my birth (Ah, where are those dreams of being the next Shanghai ? Maybe an adequate sewage system first ?). It is one thing to travel back to India and feel desperate poverty all around you; it’s everywhere. But is quite another, to see it splashed across a wide-screen, in urban America, surrounded by relatively wealthy Americans, for whom definitions of poverty are quite different than those encountered in the Third World. It makes me uncomfortable, because it’s my dirty laundry hung out to dry, for the world to see, celebrate and toast as cinematic greatness at the Golden Globes, at the Sundance festival, at the Oscars. But it is what it is, I tell myself. They show it because it does exist. You encounter many such poor Jamaals on Indian streets.
The film now, it travels question by question. In flashback mode, it takes us through Jamaal’s interrogation at the Mumbai police station, and reveals his life story, bit by bit, as Jamaal tells the inspector (Irfan Khan) how he knows the answer to each question asked on the show. Dev Patel as Jamaal, is quite effective, except for the American accent he sports – it’s not really, really obvious, but you can tell. Freida Pinto, as fellow-orphan Latika, is much more believable, and so is the actor who plays Jamaal’s brother. Anil Kapoor comes across as a sneering TV show host, being ever so subtly snide about Jamaal’s poverty-stricken roots. Having watched Bacchan and SRK being extremely polite and amiable hosts, in the actual TV show “Kaun banega crorepati”, I’m a little surprised that Anil Kapoor’s character has such obvious class hang-ups.
As I said, the film starts with a cold, hard look at poverty, and the life of the poor; Jamaal and Salim are poor orphans of a Muslim slum. They are smart, and “jugadu” as street-kids are and their young life is strewn with escapes; escaping from the police, escaping from the beggar mafia, escaping from the railway ticket collector. As they work their way up with age and time, they separate. And getting onto “Who wants to be a millionaire” is Jamaal’s attempt at finding his loved ones again.
So, yes, SM starts off depressingly, but soon develops into a wistful love story. It’s very hopeful, what with the ascent of a slum boy to the millionaire’s chair. And it’s not that Jamaal is “made” smart by the script; he is a smart kid. An intelligent, smart kid born indigent. And he hopes, and he dreams of meeting Latika again, against all odds.
And, yes, the script and direction is strong, the story is interesting and well-told, and the actors deserve applause. The film takes you through many emotions, but above all, and what drew me in, is that this is a simple film. It’s basic, no additional flounces or frippery (except that Bollywood style closing) and it appears to be passionate. Made from the heart.
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