Slumdog Millionaire

by Parsley Post to Twitter

PARSLEY’S COMMLOCK
Film Review: Slumdog Millionaire
The good vibes about this film were coming out in every direction. My Mum saw it with my brother and then wanted to see it again with me, and not just because a woman with very large hair had obscured most of her view by sitting in front of her.

The first thing I heard was that Dev Patel of TV comedy Skins was starring in it, because the local Bollywood stars (in Mumbai, previously Bombay, where the film is set and was made) were too hunky/macho, and not ready to play the awkward nervous Jamal Malik. The next thing I heard was a story about the real slumdogs (scavenger children of the slums of Mumbai) not having received any of the millions that the film was about to make. Then my Mum suggested that it was sad that the film had a ‘15’ certificate, as children at the school in Southall where she teaches, would have been interested to see it. However, it was soon clear as to why they were not allowed as the film opens with its hero being brutally tortured.

The story is told in flashback using the answers being given in the Indian version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’. The film is a Celador production and Celador are the company behind the actual game show.

Jamal knows the answers to the questions because they each relate to moments from his grim life growing up. The question order follows the sequence of his life, and this is all part of the ‘destiny’ behind his story, and also a convenient cinematic device. Outside of the film it has also been said to be part of Indian culture to accept their lot in life, and this was supposed to be how the caste system (determining status by birth) was said to have survived so long.

Jamal, his brother Salim and the girl Latika are charted through their lives, portrayed by 3 different actors each. If the story behind the film ‘Australia’ merited the title of that country, then I think it would have been reasonable to call this film ‘India’, encapsulating, as it does, many aspects of life in that country.

As it only refers to the last 20 years I can claim a small amount of first hand knowledge. Less than 20 years ago my mother and I were in Bombay, as it then was. I remember the incredible shantytown next to the airport that made me afraid of what we had travelled into, and then the lavish Oberoi hotel, since attacked, that remains the best I have ever stayed in.

Likewise we were sitting in taxis stuck in traffic when mothers would present their mutilated children for our monetary mercy. As Jamal in the film lies to tourists for their money at the Taj Mahal, so a ‘student’ talked us into going with him to be fleeced for a contribution when he lied that we were too late to travel to the Elephant Island in Bombay. We saw poor people dragging sacks of rubbish to get a small recycling fee.

So in its early section the film reasonably summed up the sorts of things we saw in its more mundane content, then adding a dose of frightening life being a child watching Muslim parents being attacked for their religion and then forced to be criminal to survive.

There was a night curfew in New Delhi when we arrived. A mosque had been destroyed, and it seemed that Hindu resentment (at deferring to Muslims for the sake of Gandhi-esque inter-racial harmony) had erupted into open aggression.

The film brings everything up to date with the wealth that has since flowed to the growing Indian economy. I would say that it is more successful in its portrayal of the children’s’ early life. The second half gets more concerned with gangster behaviours and the love of Jamal for Latika. In this section the events are more stylised and unlikely, although worthily entertaining.

Dev Patel appeared on The Daily Show, and presenter Jon Stewart compared the film favourably against The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I can’t comment on that film, but its promotion has the air of an ‘engineered’ cultural event designed to win oscars. Slumdog has a similar air, but a British one, with Film Four logos and Danny Boyle (‘Trainspotting’) directing.

Like Australia, I was in two minds as to how indigenous people would actually feel about their portrayal. Was it a western stylisation? I picked through the credits noting a western name writing the screenplay, from a book by an Asian named writer. I didn’t reach any conclusion, except that I, a westerner with a passing knowledge of India, found it a good yarn.

My Mum was also a fan, although slightly scathing about the sub-Bollywood stylised moments. Genuine Bollywood dancing is definitely better. I was also not too impressed, although also not bothered, by the overtly modern-music-with-an-asian-slant which seemed to be trying to tell us the story as we went along.

The comedy ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ seemed to cause a wave of getting Asian references and styles accepted as mainstream, and I would guess this film’s likely success will herald a further wave. The Punjabi font, for instance, looks extremely cool.

Overall Review: Thumbs firmly up. A good yarn, entertainingly, if occasionally violently, told. Hopefully good enough to win awards that will encourage more films of this quality.

parsley@gardenrecords.com [www.gardenrecords.com]