Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Keep in mind this film's premise: It is written.

This isn't a film about "luck" or "chance." I think if you watch it that way, you have a right to criticize and even dislike the film. But if you watch it like a modern-day fable, how can you not view this film as a contemporary classic?

As far as I recall, I've only watched this film one time previously -- more or less when it originally came out on DVD. But the film has always stayed with me. Few films are like that. Films that I "feel" I know long after I've forgotten all the plot details. Films like Shawshank Redemption (1994), Memento (2000), and maybe a handful of others. Films that "speak" to me on some "deeper" level. I've been wanting to re-watch Slumdog Millionaire for a long time now, to see if it's as good as I remember it to be -- to see if it was worth the feeling the memory of watching it has given me. 

And yes, it is that good. 

Jamal (Dev Patel) is somewhere around 18 when he becomes a contestant on India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This is just the last in a long string of unlikely events that Jamal has experienced. He works at a Call Center, not even as a caller, but as a Chai-runner. His only job is to bring tea to the staff. 

To get on the show, apparently, you simply need to call in and request a spot. The way the film describes it, the producers of the show do not have any more of an elaborate screening process than that. Jamal has easy access to a phone, and he knows the engineer that programmed the hotline -- so he knows the precise moment to call with the best chance of getting through. Is that "luck"? Not really, and many of the things that happen to Jamal, or the "reasons" why he knows the answers to the questions on the show, are not "luck." But we might see them that way, because what we learn of Jamal's life is all we know of his life. Then, when every question seems relevant or related to his life, we think, "that's a bunch of b.s." 

But keep this in mind. Jamal is "telling his story" to the police detective. They are actually watching last night's episode of the show as part of Jamal's interrogation, and they pause after every single question so that Jamal can explain how on earth he would know the answer to every obscure question. Here's a kid, for example, that didn't know that Gandhi was on the 1000 rupee note, but he did know that Benjamin Franklin was on the $100 bill. How is that possible? Simple, one of the roles Jamal took on in his youth was tour guide for rich international tourists, including Americans. And so it goes with every question. He always had a reason for knowing the answer to the question. Luck? Or something more than luck?

No one would say Jamal and his brother Salim (Madhur Mittal) are "lucky." Both boys have a horrible childhood. If they had parents, they are orphaned at an early age, live and make their money on a garbage dump, get "rescued" by an orphanage, only to learn that the head of the orphanage uses the gang of kids to make money through begging and prostitution, and on and on. Along the way, Jamal and Samil meet Latika (Freida Pinto). Jamal is instantly connected to her -- first as a friend, but then later, his feelings for her develop and mature. Samil, on the other hand, initially sees her as a liability. She's not blood, and when they escape the orphanage, it's Samil who makes the decision to leave her behind. 

The film covers at least 10-15 years of their lives, as they travel all over India, usually by rail, surviving on any opportunity they can seize. Eventually, Samil and Jamal return to Mumbai, a sprawling city of 19 million. It's Jamal's purpose to find and reunite with Lakita, and somehow, he does. If that seems "improbable," then yes, there are events like this in the film that do seem improbable, and I can totally understand why you wouldn't like the film for that. In a normal film, I would agree. But as fable, such "improbabilities" don't bother me. 

It bothers me more, for example, when Samil acts capriciously at the end. He's a guy who's almost always been out for himself. Yes, it's true that he does have lines he won't cross. For example, when Maman (Ankur Vikal) orders Samil to blind his brother (blind beggars make more money), Samil sides with his brother. So, I guess maybe you can say that Samil "has his moments," but at other times, he'll point a gun straight at Jamil and tell him to leave. I'm just not sure I understand why one of those "good Samil" moments is helping Lakita escape at the end. 

All I can come up with is that he has, I guess, submitted to what was written. At different moments, he wanted nothing to do with Lakita. Then, he wanted Lakita for himself. Then, he was willing to help powerful forces keep Latika captive. Does he somehow in the end finally realize that her destiny is intertwined with Jamal's, and rather than try to prevent it, he can be the agent that allows it to finally happen? 

Giving Lakita her freedom, however, comes with a price. Samil must sacrifice his life for her, but it's the price he must pay as he knows he owes both Latika and Jamil more than he can ever repay. His life is all he has to offer. 

I like how India is watching. In a day and age where people no longer "rally around the TV," we're told that 90 million people are watching as Jamal takes a shot at the last question. For the most part, the caste system is not mentioned at all in the film. Nevertheless, we know that there's a caste system in India, and the Slumdog kids are seen as worthless. Jamal is a pretty clean-looking slum kid. He's escaped the slums without any marks, all his limbs and eyesight intact. Even so, Prem (Anil Kapoor), the host and face of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, is not his friend. At best they are frenemies. Prem wants to be a good host and he wants the episode to be compelling, but he also thinks there's no way this Slumdog kid could know all the answers without cheating. He goes as far as to feed Jamal a wrong answer during a commercial break, but Jamal knows not to trust him. This penultimate question might have been one that Jamal didn't know the answer to, but again, it's his own life experience that taught him not to trust Prim and that helped him pick the right answer.

Then the final question, which is about the names of the Three Musketeers. As we see earlier in the film, Jamal and Samir's formal education is severely limited, but if they were in class even just for one day, they were presented with Andre Dumas's The Three Musketeers. The part of the story Jamal heard stayed with him, but his time in school, as brief as it was, didn't give him the opportunity to learn the third Musketeer's name. And even though Latika is dubbed the third musketeer, when she answers as his Phone a Friend, she doesn't know the name either. But he makes a pure guess, and he wins.  

In theory, Jamal wins the $200,000 prize. He also "wins" the girl once and for all. Now, what happens next? This is where the fable ends, but it's always a good sign when you're watching a movie and you want to learn what happens next. I was sad to see the film end. It doesn't end with a wedding, but in typical Bollywood fashion, at least it ends with an all-cast dance, and the credits roll.

And then we're reminded this: The answer is d) It is written. 

Rating: 5/5 stars