Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Slumdog Millionaire
2008
***
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Tanay Chheda, Irrfan Khan, Rubina Ali

18-year-old Jamal Malik is one question away from winning the top prize in India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? How can a simple boy from the slums of Mumbai know all the answers? Question by question, we learn how he's acquired the knowledge through personal hardship, in chronological order, no less. Danny Boyle's surprise hit is a feelgood film in which everyone feels bad. The film is energetic and entertaining, but it offers an awkward mix of social realism and romantic fantasy. It's brutally frank and earnest in depicting the horrors of life in the gutter, but the story of Jamal, his love interest Latika, and his brother Salim has too many contrivances and coincidences to be plausible. Adapted from Vikas Swarup's novel Q & A. A winner of eight Oscars, which include best film, director, and adapted screenplay.