Film and DVD Review - Slumdog Millionaire: Beautiful and visually stunning

This multiple oscar winning film is a beautiful and flashy rush of colour, sound and movement typical of Bollywood films, Slumdog Millionaire, the latest from the British director Danny Boyle, dredge along the bottom, it light-heartedly bounces from one horror to the next. It is a modern fairy tale about a poor Slumdog pining to become a prince, it is set mainly in the squalor of Mumbai, India, where children and dogs sift through trash so nasty I was sure I could smell the s**t well I would if by the time I’d noticed we weren’t in some other visually stunning but horrific situation.

Having found his way on to the Indian “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,” Jamal (Dev Patel) is quickly getting towards the top prize, having gone against the odds with his host of correct answers. Jamal is thought to be cheating and is arrested and torturously interrogated by a suspicious and hardened detective, the great Irfan Kahn. In an attempt to stay alive, Jamal explains how he came to hold the answers to the difficult game show questions, going back through his life and divulging the horrors he witnessed in the slums of Mumbai with older brother Salim (Madhur Mattal) and fellow orphan, and object of desire, Latika (Freida Pinto).

The narrative structure is perfect for a director like Boyle, allowing him to fast-forward between dramatic episodes at will, and freeing him from the need to stress too much on the tiny aspects of the characters' personalities.

He's always been a director keener to play with form and mess with tempo than to explore the complexities of human character. Yet the film, which for all its fast paced intensity rarely fails to meet our expectations, and which in its final scenes sticks closely to the conventions of a modern action drama and it never fails to grip or to delight.

Sure, there are risks involved for those who elect to make that kind of film, These days any film set in a poor or developing nation will attract scrutiny. And I have heard it said that Slumdog Millionaire itself is patronizing, that it doesn't say enough about India’s politics and that it prettifies suffering and poverty. To which I say: nonsense.

Boyle is not a political director, but his film is incalculably more radical than the glossy, over the top pictures that emerge every week from the studios of Mumbai.

I was not expecting to like this film however I believe that is to be one of my favorite films of all time! The acting and pace of this film is second to none keeping the viewer hooked and wanting to know what happens next. I strongly urge you to watch this film, you WON’T be disappointed. Boyle has created a masterpiece!