Flutterby™! : Slumdog Millionaire

Our friend Sarada spent some time bouncing back and forth between Goa and Bombay and various other places in that area back in the day. We got together on Sunday evening to make truffles, and she mentioned that she'd been so impressed by Slumdog Millionaire that she wanted to go back and see it again, so last night we headed down to The Rafael to see it on the big screen.

There are movies that give a sense of place but do so at the expense of the story, The Art of Travel is one such, and even there we get a sense of a glossy film, what the lucky American wants to see. Slumdog Millionaire pulls no such punches, and, as I commented to Sarada afterwards, I felt like it's as close as I can get to the slums of Mumbai without having to worry about getting the wheels stolen off my car. Sarada, who spent time there, agreed.

But even as it brutally depicts the Hindu on Muslim violence and riots, and life scavenging in the dumps and begging on the streets, it manages to show such things as "the way things are", not wallowing in them, so I never felt dragged through the muck, or preached to.

The film opens on the hero, Jamal Malik, being tortured in an Indian Police station because he's suspected of cheating to win India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, after all, how would a Muslim orphan from the slums possibly know the answers? As the interrogation continues we see his life unfold in three timelines, his life, the interrogation, and the TV show, and see how his experiences lead to the answers, even when he doesn't know them.

One of the things that impressed me about it was that even as it was a tight script, it was never "on rails". There are several situations where the story could have taken a few branches, some of them quite dark, and I never had the luxury of "oh, of course our hero will prevail", yet, as I said, I never felt manipulated or like I had the horrors forced on me.

This one's recommended, especially on the big screen.

Oh, and afterwards we had tea and conversation with an accomplished Foley artist.