That 'Slumdog' Stole My Heart!

by Brett Parker

When was the last time a cinematic romance touched you? I’m talking really got to you? Twilight sure as hell didn’t achieve that, although millions of teen girls claim it did. We live in cynical times where most big-screen romances are bogged down by commercial phoniness. It’s beginning to seem like an innocent movie romance that can produce genuine affection, heartache, and inspiration is damn near impossible to create.

Well not anymore. Behold Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, a tale of longing and true love that will sneak up on you and have your heart beating again for silver screen love. This is a rich film that can be called many things: an energetic adventure, a unique exploration of the mystic Indian landscape, a colorful tale straight out of Dickens, an underdog story, yet when all is said and done, it is ultimately the story of a love that refuses to die and is worth fighting for. It’s certainly worth watching; this romance penetrates the grinchy walls over our souls and hits us straight in the heart. This one’s the real deal.

The opening scene shows the film’s hero, Jamal (Dev Patal) being beaten by a giant police officer. Jamal is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and is performing surprisingly great. He has answered every question correctly and is one question away from winning the entire contest. This raises suspicion from forces behind-the-scenes of the show. Jamal is a life-long poor citizen who is currently holding down a job as a tea boy for a cell phone company. Almost anyone can tell that Jamal is not the best-educated of people. How can this unsophisticated “Slumdog” possibly know every single answer of this contest? Surely, he must be cheating!

As it turns out, the questions he is being asked on the show ironically correspond to significant moments in Jamal’s hard and adventurous life. Forced to explain how he knew the answers to a Police Sergeant (Saurabh Shukla), Jamal recalls the story of his poverty-ridden life, which includes witnessing the death of his mother, pan-handling for a sinister hustler, and pretending to be a tour guide for the Taj Mahal. Both Jamal and his brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), had to beg, fight, and hustle their way through the slums of India in order to survive. In his younger years, Jamal met and fell in love with Latika (Freida Pinto), another poor orphan who became a prostitute in order to survive. Jamal has always been in love with her and dreams of one day whisking her away to a safe and better life, although the cynical Latika fails to see how their social situations could ever allow this to happen. Yet Jamal keeps hope alive and even thinks his game show stint could help matters to his advantage.

Critics have likened to Slumdog Millionaire to classic stories such as Oliver Twist and Huckleberry Finn, and it truly is easy to spot the adventurous energy and colorful character strokes of those earlier works. Like those stories, the film is a grand canvas tale filled with fascinating episodes that help sculpt an enormously appealing story. It also helps that the Indian landscape is seen with great vividness. Students of films like City of God will recognize this style of filmmaking, yet the story is filled with such energy and heart that the film’s visuals feel anything but routine. Much credit is due to directors Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan in finding the right visual scheme to make this likeable story feel less convenient and cute than it probably is.

Danny Boyle is a director who can take seemingly familiar stories and make them surprisingly effective. His zombie film 28 Days Later is probably the scariest film I’ve ever seen and even commercial fare like The Beach is more unique and thoughtful than we’re used to. I admit my wall of cynicism was thrown up as I went to take in this film, yet Boyle’s love story was able to genuinely pull on my heart strings like no other film has for a very long time. I was so surprised by how touched I was. This is probably due to the strong performances from both Patal and Pinto as the yearning lovers. Their eyes are filled with such anguish and longing that we buy every inch of their love. Listen to Jamal’s reason for going on the game show or watch what happens when the final game show question is revealed to him. Boyle and his actors know how to make this material spring from the heart and hit yours.

I know I sound like quite the softie right now, but that’s how powerful Slumdog Millionaire is. You can walk into the theatre with an ice-covered prune in your chest and walk out with an uplifted and inspired heart. Even the film’s final Bollywood dance number will have you pumped with excitement. This is one optimistic experience that will rejuvenate anyone’s affections for India, filmmaking, and old-fashioned romance.