Slumdog’s prominence in the awards hoopla has been almost as unbelievable as its storyline. What started as an odd collaboration between Celador pictures (owners of the rights to ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’), novelist Vikas Swarup, Full Monty scriptwriter Simon Beaufoy, Warner Brothers, and Danny Boyle, is now the film to beat at the Oscars, and the subject of much marketing and hype. Luckily the film more than stands on its own merits: offering an avalanche of colours, chases, fast cuts, strong characters and an iconic landscape. Danny Boyle has stated that the film was a constant attempt at a ‘motion picture’ in the true sense of the word. If judged on those merits – and not as some have seen it, as a patronising attempt at ‘Hollywood doing Bollywood’ – then the film is a fantastic ride, and is easily Boyle’s most ‘box-office’ number yet. 

The film starts with the character Jamal (played well by Dev Patel), who is very close to winning a large amount of money on the Indian version of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’. The Mumbai police are suspicious, and attempt to make him admit he cheated. He is seated in a police station, replayed his performance on a tape, and asked, by the police inspector how he came to know the answer to each question. Very cleverly, the film then jumps back in time, showing how each question relates to a particular incident in his life.  For much of the rest of the film, the younger Jamal, excellently played by a true ‘slumdog’, is shown running around in the streets of Mumbai, chasing after actor Amitabh Bachchan, and slowly showing us, through his scrapes, mishaps, love life and family life, how he, a poor ‘slumdog’ came to know the answer to each of the impossible questions.

The film’s storyline has been compared to a few recent Bollywood films, and it is true that the themes of family ties, money, bloodlust, gangster crime, and the seemingly unattainable girl are a familiar landscape. What also makes the film familiar around the world is the Indian landscape it shows: the children in the slums of Mumbai, the

clips of Amitabh Bachban films, the tourist guides in front of the Taj Mahal, children climbing on the roofs of moving trains, and much later on, Jamal dangling his legs off the edge of a newly built office block, contemplating the rise of a new, richer and more westernised Mumbai. There is a subconscious thread running throughout the film about the changes in urban India and the nation’s aspirations. It is gritty, urbane and believable. However, the main thrust of the story, particularly as Jamal and his friends are shown growing up on the streets of Mumbai, is one of a fantastical world, where they make their own luck – they literally tumble from one dangerous adventure into another.

What distinguishes the film is not Hollywood, or Bollywood, but the classic constant storytelling elements it contains: the hopeful and timeless story of the underdog’s battle to succeed against the odds, the vivid colours and appeals to the senses, the story of a changing city: all of these indicate sure signs of a true motion picture. In a way, the Oscars don’t really matter: as crass as it sounds, the simple and honest feel-good factor the film leaves you with what really does seem like a larger victory. I only wish there was slightly more dancing….

Words > Stephen Sharrock