Film: Slumdog Millionaire

Banner: Celador Films

Director: Danny Boyle

Producer: Christian Colson, Tessa Ross, Paul Smith

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Anil Kapoor, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Mahesh Manjrekar, Saurabh Shukla and Ankur Vikal

Rating: 4.5/5

Honestly, films like these are worth your money. Slumdog Millionaire is an imperfect portrayal of Mumbai because it is not complete, but in every sense is a perfect picture for what is seen is real.

The film has the popular show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire at the centre. A contestant on the show, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is on his way to winning the prize money. He answers each question correctly but behind every answer there is a story.

A story which shocks, awes and reveals his life and love. Quizzing him on the show is Prem (Anil Kapoor), getting out the truth is the Inspector (Irrfan Khan), living in hope is Latika (Freida Pinto), regretting his act is Salim (Madhur Mittal) and slowly unfolding it all is Jamal (Salim). What finally transpires is an easy guess.

Slumdog Millionaire is one of those layered films, at the surface of which is this glorious love story. Look deeper and you see this social element in it almost as though trying to weave a different story altogether; a tale that is about Mumbai.

The film is also about the relationship between brothers and the meanness of life. There's so much in this film, that watching it once just won't do. The film reminds one of past films like City of God, Dharavi, Salaam Bombay and City of Men yet it is nothing like it. It has that earthy and human quality these films had, that quality of being exploratory yet ensuring that ultimately what you see is a movie.

More than anything else, the film works because it has these small exciting, emotional yet powerful moments that hit you. The actions seen are nothing you'd imagine not because it is novel but because sitting in an ivory tower you'd never think it was possible.

Scenes like the one where young Jamal dives into the pile of human feces, running to get an autograph from Amitabh Bachchan or the train sequences are nothing less than brilliant. Actually brilliant seems like an...