I Went To See Slumdog Millionaire
If a movie wins 8 Oscars then it is reasonable to assume that it’s going to be worth watching, so I went to see Slumdog Millionaire on Friday evening. What a brilliant film it is too. I really enjoyed it and it kept me riveted throughout.
The film is about a young boy and his brother who grow up in the terrible slums of Mumbai. Their mother is killed so the two brothers have to fend for themselves and they beg steal and borrow to survive. The two brothers end up taking different paths. One is a gangster and the other somehow ends up being quite intelligent and sensible and finds himself on the Indian version of Who wants to be a millionaire. He manages to get all the questions correct but ends up being interrogated by the police as they think he must have cheated.
The movie then goes back to periods in the boys life and the story explains how he knows all the answers. For example, one of the questions is “Whose face is shown on the back of a $100 US bank note. The reason he knows is because he was given one whilst he was conning tourists at the Taj Mahal !
The movie carries on like this and it is a fascinating insight into how people from the Mumbai slums live. The film is entertaining and fascinating at the same time. The film also has love interest as the two brothers fight over the slum girl, Latika, who grows up with the brothers but gets separated from them before meeting up again.
All the characters play good parts and the music is good, but not quite as good as I expected, but overall the film is excellent and I would give it five stars. It is one of the few films that I have been to where the audience stayed seated for the credits at the end.
Watch the Slumdog Millionaire trailer here -