One in a Million

By Gabriella Cifu
Jabberwock Staff Reporter

It was a game-show like now other. For one boy every moment in his life had literally led him to this point.

Slumdog Millionare depicts the life of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a teenager growing up in poverty in Mumbai, India. He becomes a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in the hopes that Latika (Freida Pinto), his best friend and sweetheart, will find him. When he is only one question away from one million dollars, Jamal is arrested for cheating, as no one believes a “slumdog” could know so much.

Through flashbacks of his life, Jamal explains how he knew each of the answers on the game show. The movie follows Jamal, his older brother Salim (Madhur Mittal), and Latika through their difficult lives. Living in poverty, a corrupt orphanage and then on their own, they struggle to survive and stay together, despite all odds.

Everything from the actors to the storyline was perfect. It’s no wonder that Millionaire has been nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture Oscar.

The main characters (Jamal, Salim and Latika) were portrayed at three different ages throughout the film. Rather than hire professional actors to play the friends in their younger years, director Danny Boyle instead opted to employ children living in the very slums in Mumbai shown in the film.

The children, who speak Hindi, were fabulous in their roles and added a level of realism to the movie which could not have been achieved otherwise. This is not to undermine the superior acting of Patel, Pinto and Mittal, who all were able to bring their characters full circle and continue to charm viewers, just as their younger counterparts had done.

With a perfect blend of tragedy and romance, as well as fact and fiction, Millionaire had it all. It was beautifully filmed and was not overdone with unrealistic special effects. Every flashback was hard-hitting and memorable, and was complimented well with scenes of the present game show and interrogations.

The ingenuity behind each of the flashbacks was astounding and not only made connections to Jamal’s success on the game show, but also subtly introduced viewers to many of the unforeseen horrors that befall poverty-stricken individuals, often children, living in India.

The movie was not well known nor advertised before the Golden Globes, where it won Best Picture. Since then, the movie has gained enormous popularity in the U.S. and abroad.

Although Millionaire has an R rating, it truly is borderline PG-13. Though there is some violence in the film, it is necessary to accurately portray the hardships faced by Jamal, and is not excessively graphic, nor unexpected.

There was another aspect of this film that is worth going to the movies to experience: the music. Despite the serious theme of the movie, the directors were able to incorporate a Bollywood type music theme into the movie.

With a mix of traditional sounding Indian music and more contemporary artists such as M.I.A. the soundtrack fit perfectly with the film. Each song on its own has catchy lyrics and beat, and when put into the movie, each genuinely captures the essence of the scene it was in.

The movie incorporated the recent hit Paper Planes by M.I.A. While before, this song seemed catchy, but had little meaning, its use in the movie captured the spirit of working hard to make a living.

One of the theme songs of the movie, Jai Ho, which nominated for an Oscar, combined a sentimental, soulful tune with a more upbeat rhythm and lyrics making for a great song in the film, and an even greater single. Millionaire in general has one of the greatest soundtracks, which is well worth listening to, even if you don’t see the movie.

Despite its grim portrayal of life, Slumdog Millionaire is one of the most exciting, emotional, and heartwarming films of the year. With its Bollywood twist, it combines all the elements that individually make a great film. The result: one of the greatest films not only of this year, but of the decade.



Jamal continues to stun viewers with his knowledge. Photo courtesy of http://hardpop.files.wordpress.com/