While it is fun to watch movies of books that are read prior, the flicks rarely do justice to the author’s rendition of characters, stories and genre. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is this rare film that has not only captured, in perfection, Vikas Swarup’s interpretation of Q&A but also depicted the underlying authenticity of ‘developing’
In the middle of it all is our hero – the protagonist Jamal Malik (aka Ram Mohamed Thomas from Q&A) - and his roller-coaster journey of brotherhood, humanity, acceptance and most of all, love. “Come with me”. “And live on what?” “Love”. Such daring conversation in the movie but with extreme simplicity and in true earnest is the essence of the movie. One question away from winning Rs. 20 million at the popular game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ but accused of cheating, our Jamal is tortured by the Mumbai police (entirely different arena of existence!!). In response, he narrates, to each question on the show, how he simply knew every answer. So for every question on the show is flashback account of occurrences that has led to Jamal knowing the answer. Worth Rs. 1,000/2,000/20,000, stories of these questions transport us to Jamal’s (and our very own) reality of clutching lifestyle in the poverty-stricken regions of the urban phenomena. With misfortune in each of the incidents, one would only wonder if it made Jamal less righteous and also wicked (like the path his brother chose) but his penchant for taking the ‘right’ path as opposed to the ‘wrong’ (as we are made to believe) was indeed the result of his inspirational faith and love for his childhood mate Latika. No matter where instances took her in the movie, or the situations she was faced with, Jamal has a pious adoration for her that, we see, does not go in vain. He is the Forrest Gump in the movie, on the run throughout, with her always! This is also what leads him to take part in the show, not for the money but for love.
Heart-rendering percussion from A.R.Rahman fits well with each of the scenes in the movie. While there is portrayal of sadness and calamity, there is equal amount of humour in all of that which never ceases. With scenes of urban
It is written.
