Slumdog Millionaire on Bluray

Slumdog Millionaire opens with a young Indian man competing on the Hindi version of the ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ game show in Mumbai, India. The film shows the vast contrasts between the utter poverty of the nation in an emerging modern world. It is an emotional ride at lighting speed where you may find yourself smiling for a moment and cringing seconds later.

Young Jamal, a product of the slums, is winning the ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ game show. Change scene: Jamal is being tortured by the Indian police because they do not think an uneducated man from the slums of Mumbai could defeat a game show that others much wiser could not. Jamal’s story is told in flashbacks and the audience learns how he came to know the answers of each and every question.

The scenes of Slumdog Millionaire are set in the most horrific squalor we from the first world can even imagine. The story is actually a fairy tale in the sense that someone may come out of a wretched life so unscarred as Jamal appears to be. Slumdog Millionaire is a love story, not an expose on the perils of the impoverished Third World.

Director Danny Boyle is otherwise known for his work on films such as 28 Days or Trainspotting, but his work here is something else. Although most of the cast of Slumdog Millionaire are Bollywood actors and the film was entirely filmed in India, this is every bit a Western production.