Slumdog Millionaire - reviewed *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

There are spoilers throughout this post. Don't read if you don't want to know.

-----

I was very excited to watch this movie for two reasons: 1. Director Danny Boyle directed Trainspotting, which remains one of my favorite movies. I had high hopes for Slumdog. 2. My recent interest in Bollywood movies. Although I have not seen one yet, I thought that this would be a good introduction.

I'm going to play the culture card here, and evaluate it not as a Danny Boyle film, nor as a film in and of itself, but as an introduction to Indian film, and Indian culture.

Now, the question raised here should be: how can this film, directed by an English guy who is best known for a film about Scottish heroin addicts, be considered a proper foray into Indian film and culture?

Three things: location, contrast with Boyle's other work, and casting.

Location:
From what I've heard on NPR, this film was shot on location in India, in Mumbai (actual slums) and other parts of the country. These actual locations provide an authentic backdrop for the film. From my prior experience at an educational travel company, I know that trains are an essential, heavily-used mode of transportation, and its prominence in the movie lends a further degree of authenticity.

Contrast with Boyle's other work:
Danny Boyle has gone on record as saying he'd watched several Bollywood movies immediately before embarking on this project. This is apparent in the hopefulness on display throughout the film. Although I noticed a number of gritty elements that, aside from specific environment, could easily be found in another of his films, but I also noticed that these elements lack a similar grim finality. In Slumdog, there's always a glimmer of hope that salvation is around the corner (and generally comes before the end of the scene), and even at the end, just reward comes to all of our heroes, heroines, antiheroes, and villains. These rays of sunshine and happy endings are uncommon to his body of work, and I infer that this is a fairly common element in Bollywood.

Casting:
There's no Kal Penn here. A number of the actors are pretty well-known in Indian film. Plus, they had a big musical/dance number at the end, and that's really all I knew about Bollywood.

Now, a comment about its Oscar-worthiness. I know that, leading up to the Globes, a huge groundswell of support built behind Slumdog for best picture. After its win, and the predictable rush of first-time viewers, momentum continued to build behind its candidacy. Equally predictable will be the portion of the viewing public who will fight the tide, and disparage the movie as unworthy. They'd be right - this movie really doesn't stand up as one of the all-time greats, as I've heard some say; but it's still damn good. I agree with those that have correctly assessed Slumdog as great for what it is, an introduction for western viewers to a culture to which we've been sadly underexposed.