Kyle does Slumdog Millionaire

“When somebody asks me a question, I tell them the answer.”

The Scoop: 2008 R, directed by Danny Boyle & Loveleen Tandan, and starring Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla.

Tagline: What does it take to find a lost love?

Summary Capsule: Young man becomes a contestant on the Indian ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ to gain the attention of his true love and maybe fulfill his ultimate destiny

Kyle’s Rating: My most uplifting, non-pickaxe-through-brains favorite film experience of ’09 thus far!

Kyle’s Review: First and foremost Slumdog Millionaire is a love story, full of (im)patient longing and true destiny, so try not to be discouraged by the opening scenes of torture. This is a film that I knew very little about, only saw because my need to find a restroom in Burbank coincided perfectly with an afternoon showing (with enough time thrown in for a big bag of popcorn and a TON of that pump-your-own “butter” topping), and whose most worthy pedigree was that a best friend with similar taste declared it “the best film of 2008” just a few days prior.

Slumdog Millionaire works best, I should think, on that first viewing where perhaps you have only some vague sense of what you’re about to see but aren’t entirely certain how you’re going to get it. Time gets played with, not to the Oscar-baiting extent that I hear goes on in another Oscar-nominated film (which I plan to see next), but you had better be prepared to pay some close attention.

I think what stood out for me as an absolute plus was the dialogue and consequently how major revelations are handled: far from the expected manner of using freeze framing and lengthy close-ups to indicate the ‘important’ visual elements we should be memorizing, there is quite a bit of expectation that the audience is going to be smart to piece some things together on their own. Similarly, the dialogue is written in a very natural way that simultaneously entertains even as it clues us on developments past, present, and future without being utterly blatant. Sort of a sad societal progression that I laud a film that doesn’t treat its viewers as attention-deficient buffoons, but what can I say?

Actually, at this point I should mention something specific about the movie. At its core, it’s a very standard story: kids grow up in hardship, one boy falls in love with one girl and knows from then on that it is destined that they will be together, while the boy’s older brother takes on the leadership role despite probably not being the best candidate for doing so. And then orphan-style madness happens to all of them and it’s bad for a long time, until perseverance and plucky ingenuity resolves everything and everyone gets what they deserve. And, being ostensibly an Indian film, the end credits roll against a Bollywood-style big dance number. Good, happy, uplifting times!

That doesn’t sound particularly appealing or award-winning, does it? Let me sweeten it then: set in India, what most critics refer to as the “real” India, means that all of this standard stuff happens in a setting that is seldom, if ever, used for such a story. There is such decay and squalor that it seems impossible to find beauty within the world these children grow up in, yet from the start Danny Boyle’s worthy direction maintains a view of the proceedings that never allows us to forget that this is some impressively foreign scenery. Whether you’re skeezed out or not, it’s nearly impossible to feel like paying rapt attention to the screen if only to see another piece of our world that you may not have seen before, from a whole new perspective. Absolutely breathtaking depiction of what at times seems like a whole other planet: amazing!

I have friends who get their movies in highly illegal ways. It is difficult to judge them too harshly, if only because of the unspoken benefits for friends of those type of evil-doers. Anyway, to a person, everyone who downloaded Slumdog Millionaire didn’t quite understand the hype. At best, a couple got into the story but remained confused that it could be garnering such awards dicussion. “It’s just another love story,” one girl told me.

There is no “see movies in theaters in order to enjoy them fully” moral going on here. But I would classify SM as a tremendous example of a cinematic crowd-pleaser, so at its best you’re going to be part of a crowd watching it. At least your first time. If you hate being seated by the randomly assembled idiots that make up your theater-going community, or you can’t leave your house without fearing for your mental safety, I understand watching it on your own. Otherwise: see it on a busy movie-going night. Like a sports event or inauguration, you’ll tap into not just your own natural energy but also that of your surroundings.

Or perhaps not. I have enough faith in Slumdog Millionaire, in the accomplished way it uses chronological games and a fresh take on a fairly unexplored setting to tell a classic story in a “new” way, that however you watch it you’ll at least appreciate what it adds to the genre of film. Far from being one of those Best Picture contenders that in a few year’s time will be wondered of “How did that get nominated again?” it will endure. People love an underdog, to be sure, and certainly even your most hardened, anti-cleverness and anti-foreign film type will give the film a chance once they hear the central conceit of the plot: young man gets onto the Indian incarnation of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ so he can reach the love-of-his-life. How American is that?

'Is that the last answer of which you will make final?'

Prem Kumar: A few hours ago, you were giving chai for the phone walahs. And now you’re richer than they will ever be. What a player!

Prem Kumar: Its getting hot in here.
Jamal Malik: Are you nervous?
Prem Kumar: [audience laughs] What? Am I nervous ? Its you whos in the hot seat, my friend!
Jamal Malik: Yes, sorry.

Jamal Malik: When somebody asks me a question, I tell them the answer.

Prem Kumar: So are you ready for the final question for 20 million rupees?
Jamal Malik: No, but maybe its written, no?
Prem Kumar: Maybe…

If You Liked This Movie, Try These:

• Millions

• Bollywood/Hollywood
• Quiz Show