Slumdog Millionaire

Trainspotting's Danny Boyle's at his best in Slumdog Millionaire, a romantic tale of a virtuous individual's shot at the big time. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel, Tanah Chheda, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar) grew up in the slums where he learned the hard way how to cope with life's injustices. Full of working class grit and tenacity, Malik boldly navigates his culture's rigid social rapids and hard-boiled ethical hardships, taking lumps and lashes all the way to a miraculous appearance on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" His success leads to accusations of foul play and the film unreels in a series of flashbacks as the authorities harshly interrogate the legitimacy of his answers (the present requires the past to have a chance for the future). But for each and every question posed there's a personal anecdote that upholds both the veracity of his choices and the integrity of his disenfranchised education.

Malik's set up in opposition to his older brother Salim (Madhur Mittal, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail) who makes his way with a gun rather than his mind. In the film's ending, as Malik searches for the answer to the 20 million rupee question, Salim is shot in a bathtub full of cash, Boyle's narrative championing the individual who chose life as opposed to death to earn his living (the resolution's a little too melodramatic but whatever). However, in the end this dimension is ambiguously challenged by the unveiling of the correct answer to the question posed at the film's beginning, a challenge which problematizes his victory while simultaneously making it all the more emphatic (time, space, and the ideological chase).

Slumdog's pacing reflects the different stages of Malik's development insofar as his youth is filled with quickly moving scenes which capture life's enraptured rush and things begin to slow down as he gradually matures. An early scene poignantly points out precisely how resolute Malik is when it comes to achieving his goals as well as the enormous obstacles standing in his way. It's fun to sit back and watch as he heroically hustles and shuffles his way through life, constantly contending and coordinating with foes and friends respectively, his spirit always aware of each situation's final answer.