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Watching Danny Boyle’s latest Oscar-winning masterpiece “Slumdog Millionaire,” is worthy of experiencing an emotional roller-coaster ride that can only be offered by the “Chawl City” Mumbai. As it is said, the city that never sleeps, the city that is the center of the world (narrated by a character called Salim in the movie), the city with an economic and social contrast ratio of 20,000,000:1 consequently reveals itself on the screen with all its color and dark shades. Director, Danny Boyle and  screenplay writer, Simon Beaufoy (based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup) has masterfully crafted the film using the Indian version of the television game show “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” i.e. “Kaun Banega Crorepati”

In one of the fastest growing economy of the world how slums and street life has grasped its surface is masterfully depicted by Danny Boyle, but Slumdog Millionaire not only brings to life the dark as well as the bright side of the city of Mumbai in a unique style that is shocking and overwhelming at the same time.

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal, an half educated “chai-wallah” (tea boy) in a modern high-tech call center who is on the verge of winning the highly coveted two crore (twenty million) rupees award money participating in a quiz show, is indeed a miraculous fairy tale. It is so unthinkable that the show anchor (Anil Kapoor) gets him arrested to just know how this lower class boy can cheat his way through to the correct answers with fathoming speed.

Fortunately for Jamal, the answers to the questions comes from his own life experiences and not from any academic books – the unforgettable memories of his early life in the slums and streets of Mumbai – his fight for existence along with his brother Salim at the foot of the Tajmahal, and finally in his quest for the love of his life – Latika! Ironically, the final question in the quiz game show comes from the book “Three Musketeers” by Alexander Dumas, that he and his brother had only started to read during his limited access to academic study in the school at their very early age. He chooses to opt for the “Life Line” called Phone a Friend – his brother and Latika, but both fail to answer. Hence, Jamal decides to empower his destiny to decide -and once again gambles his life with huge courage in heart in front of millions of television viewers.
The performances put up by all the lead characters were enthralling and spontaneous, the remarkable one being the performance of the children in the first half of the movie. The inspiring and thematic music by Indian music God A. R. Rahman has helped heighten the emotions and the final song and dance scene during the credits was a treat.

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