UNDERDOG TRIUMPH. Slumdog Millionaire — starring Dev Patel, left, and
Freida Pinto — combines many cinematic traditions to create an unexpected
film that is appealing to audiences everywhere. (Photo/Ishika Mohan,
courtesy of Fox Searchlight)
From The Asian Reporter, V19, #5 (February 3, 2009), page 9 & 16.
A cross-cultural cinematic success story
Slumdog Millionaire
Directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan
Produced by Christian Colson and Paul Ritchie
Showing in theaters everywhere
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
Few films start with less fanfare and receive high praise as quickly as
Slumdog Millionaire. After incredible success in the U.K., it opened
in only 10 theaters in six U.S. cities this past November, but it became
such an instant hit that it quickly expanded nationwide.
Two months later, the Anglo-Indian collaboration received 10 Oscar
nominations to go with the more than 40 other international awards it’s
already garnered. It’s easy to see why: The film fuses the slick production
values of Hollywood with the exuberant patchwork sensibility of Indian
Bollywood films to produce a beautiful, well-crafted, and unexpected film
that appeals to audiences everywhere.
The story follows Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), the unlikeliest contestant
ever to appear on India’s version of the TV quiz show "Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire?" Jamal began as a child of the Indian slums, but worked his way
up to tea-fetching assistant (or chai-wallah) at an Indian call
center. Against all odds, he has made it onto the show, where he is one
question away from winning the top 20 million rupee prize.
This improbable rise, while perfectly consistent with the bizarre plot
twists of Bollywood cinema, does not wash with the Mumbai TV show in the
film. The host (played by Indian star Anil Kapoor) in particular is
suspicious of Jamal’s easy confidence, and his surety in obscure answers. So
Jamal is dragged off to be questioned and tortured to reveal how he knows
the answers.
Slumdog follows Jamal’s explanation of the source of his knowledge,
coincidentally following the tortuous turns of his own life, itself a
microcosm of Indian society. As a parentless trash-picker, he was taken into
an orphanage with insidious designs on its charges, but escaped to become a
street vendor, tour guide, and eventually the chai-wallah position that
enables his quiz-show appearance.
Throughout his climb, there are two consistent figures: his older,
tougher brother Salim (Madhur Mittal) and their adoptive sister, fellow
orphan Latika (Freida Pinto). Salim protects the two of them, often
viciously, while Jamal’s love for Latika drives him to seek her out after
they become separated. By turns fortunate and unlucky, Jamal still eludes
the worst fates awaiting the average child of the slum while unconsciously
collecting clues that will later help him on the show.
The intricate filmmaking behind his story, mixing a rags-to-riches
Bollywood plot with the tidy aesthetics of Hollywood, shows the
Eastern-Western alliance behind Slumdog’s success. Simon Beaufoy, the
British writer who penned The Full Monty, adapted Slumdog from
Q & A, a 2005 novel by Indian writer Vikas Swarup that won South
Africa’s Boeke Award. For realism, British director Danny Boyle, best known
for Trainspotting and the horror film 28 Days Later, relied
heavily upon co-director Loveleen Tandan’s understanding of her native
Indian language and culture.
Depending on your perspective, this either amounts to a beautiful fusion
of different cultural sensibilities or cinematic colonial exploitation,
though audiences don’t seem to care. The film’s tremendous sales in the U.K.
were a direct result of England’s strong Asian population, evidenced by
Slumdog’s quick word-of-mouth growth. It debuted at No. 1, then
increased its sales by 47 percent in its second week, a record-breaking jump
that shattered the previous record of 13 percent.
Popular appeal aside, the question of its exploitativeness has caused
some controversy. Critics say the film depends on a stereotype of Indians as
sly, crafty survivors, or that it portrays India as a corrupt and violent
country. It’s hard not to see this as true — films everywhere depend on
stereotypes and unrealistic generalizations, particularly romantic
adventures, one of the many genres that might describe Slumdog.
This blending is another symptom of its transcontinental origins. Like
the Bollywood movies from which it draws, the film combines many cinematic
traditions, mixing music, adventure, romance, and comedy into one
implausible and twisting plotline. Slumdog is alternately brutal and
touching, tragic and comic, grittily realistic and romantically improbable,
but trying to separate the Eastern and Western influences on the movie
becomes a futile enterprise, if not a meaningless one.
Just like the Anglo-Indians on both sides of the Atlantic who flocked to
theaters to watch it, Slumdog has adapted its native traditions and
language to its glitzy Western context. If it suffers from a kind of
identity crisis, alternately apologetic and proud of its roots, then it is
no different from the millions of hyphenated immigrants worldwide whose
story it tries to portray. Whatever its origins — or yours — Slumdog
Millionaire has a marvellous, spellbinding character all its own, and
your ability to enjoy it without reservation is assured.
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