What is Slumdog Millionaire about?
Slumdog Millionaire is a classic tale of adversity and the human spirit. The movie is about how a slumdog, Jamal Palik (Dev Patel), becomes a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and wins but then is accused of cheating. The movie is a story largely told in flashbacks and starts with Jamal being tortured by the police because they are sure that no uneducated slumdog would know the answers to win the game show. As the detective takes him through his answer to each question you can see how Jamal’s life has prepared him for the game show.As the flashbacks continue it portrays an interesting lifelong story of how Jamal grew up on the streets. Jamal and his brother Salim become orphans after a violent clash between Hindus and Muslims. The movie goes through Jamal’s relationship with his older brother Salim. We watch how each brother deals with life. While Salim is willing to use brutality to achieve his goals, Jamal tries to get to his through truth and loyalty. They befriend another orphan named Latika and she becomes the love of Jamal’s life. The orphans are eventually taken in by a gangster named Maman who trains street children to beg for money. The three orphans try to escape from Maman when Salim rebels from Maman because he is supposed to blind Jamal to increase his begging potential. Only Salim and Jamal escape and Latika is captured and raised as a prostitute. The brothers survive by pickpocketing, selling goods, and pretending to pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Majal. Jamal goes back to Mumbai to find Latika and the brothers try to rescue her but Maman gets in the way and Salim draws a gun and kills him. Salim then gets a job with a rival crime lord, Javed and keeps Latika as his own. When Jamal protests Salim threatens to kill his own brother but Latika intervenes and sticks with Salim which breaks Jamal’s heart. Years later Jamal is a chai-wallah at a call center and when covering for a co-worker searches a database and finds Salim. He gets in touch with Salim and finds out Latika is with Javed and tries to get her to leave with him but she is captured by Javed’s people and her cheek is slashed. He again loses touch with her. He decides to try out for the game show because he knows she will be watching. This is where the story catches up with current time and starts to pick up speed and intensity as the past gives way to the future.
The soundtrack is fantastic. The movie is rated R and the rating is earned. The move was based on the novel Q&A. Danny Boyle did a wonderful job directing the movie.Directed by Danny Boyle
Produced by Christian Colson
Written by Simon Beaufoy
Starring Dev Patel
Freida Pinto
Anil Kapoor
Irrfan Khan
Tanay Chheda
Saurabh Shukla
Mahesh Manjrekar
Music by A. R. Rahman
Cinematography Anthony Dod Mantle
Slumdog Millionaire opens with a police inspector (Irrfan Khan) in Mumbai, India, interrogating and torturing Jamal Malik (Dev Patel, also played by Tanay Chheda and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar), a former street child from the Dharavi slums. Jamal is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati), hosted by Prem Kumar (noted Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor). Jamal has made it to the final question, but the police are now accusing him of cheating. Jamal then begins to offer an explanation of how he knew the answers which is conveyed as a series of flashbacks documenting the particulars of his childhood. This includes scenes of him obtaining the autograph of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan; the death of his mother during Hindu-Muslim riots in the slums; and how he and his brother Salim (Madhur Mittal, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, and Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala) befriended the orphan girl, Latika (Freida Pinto, Rubiana Ali, and Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar). As
Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik (Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India¹s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Pinto), the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show¹s questions. Each chapter of Jamal¹s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show¹s seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches rea
