Yet, as I walked home tonight, through the wind and minus figures, although a new ply of frost accumulated on my Fred Perry's with every step, but I couldn't help but feel warm inside (cheesefest, i know). It's a film based on Q&A, a novel by Vikas Swarup, intelligently adapted by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy.
I want to refrain from hurling out spoilers, so in short, It sees the central character, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel, Skins) treated with suspicion and interrogated by police after he wins the Hindi equivalent of the TV show 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire', and in turn he goes on to explain how he learnt the answers to the questions throughout his skewed and unjust upbringing in the shanty towns of Mumbai, India. Scored by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, who is lended the support of Sri Lankan born refugee M.I.A., Slumdog Millionaire journeys through a brutally compelling story of life in an impoverished India, with light reference to Indian cultural artifacts such as Amitabh Bachchan, Bel Puri, over-capacitated railway systems, and more jarring imagery of vast communities living under layers of corrugated sheet metal.
In honest truth, I walked in expecting a 'feel good epic' that would be rendered 'hyped' and 'passable' with age, but in actual fact I left feeling quite touched as it dealt out a saturated yet first handed and emotional account of life in the slums of India, reflective upon sociopolitical issues such as orphanage, poverty, access to knowledge, the Hindu Caste system, corruption, gang culture and human trafficking. To declare it 'eye opening' only touches on it's foundations, it is definitely worth giving up 120 minutes for.
Anant x
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