Slumdog Millionaire


Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author Vikas Swarup. It narrates the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai. Starring Dev Patel in his film debut as Jamal, and filmed in India, it was directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and produced by Christian Colson, with Loveleen Tandan credited as co-director.
As a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, a Hindi Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Jamal surprises everyone by answering every question correctly so far, winning , and he is one question away from winning the grand prize of . Accused of cheating, he recounts his life story to the police, illustrating how he was able to answer each question.
After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival, Slumdog Millionaire had a nationwide release in United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, in India on 23 January 2009, and in the United States on 25 January 2009. Regarded as a sleeper hit, Slumdog Millionaire was widely acclaimed, praised for its plot, soundtrack, cinematography, editing, direction, and performances. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2009 and won 8—the most of any 2008 film—including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Film, five Critics' Choice Awards and four Golden Globes. However, reception in India and among Indian diaspora was mixed, and the film was the subject of controversy over its depiction of poverty in India and other issues. The Hindustan Times called it "an assault on Indian self-esteem".

Plot

In 1992, five-year-old Jamal Malik, a resident of the Juhu, slum in Mumbai, obtains Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan's autograph after jumping into a cesspit; the crowds around Amitabh Bachchan are deterred by Jamal as he is covered head to toe in human feces. Jamal's elder brother Salim later sells the autograph. Their mother is killed during the Bombay riots. While fleeing the riot, the brothers encounter a child dressed up as Rama, with a bow and arrow in their right hand. Having escaped the riots and taken shelter from the rain, the brothers meet Latika, a girl from their slum. Jamal suggests that she could be their "third musketeer", a reference to The Three Musketeers, a novel which the brothers learned about in school. The brothers refer to themselves as Athos and Porthos but cannot remember the third musketeer's name.
The trio are found by Mamana gangster who trains street children to become beggars. After witnessing Maman blinding the children with hot oil to make them more effective beggars, Salim escapes with Jamal and Latika. The brothers board a moving train, but Latika cannot keep up. Salim grabs her hand but purposefully lets go after Latika had placed hot chili peppers in his undergarments while Salim was sleeping the night before, leaving her to be recaptured by Maman. For the next years, Salim and Jamal travel on top of trains, making a living by selling goods, pickpocketing, washing dishes, and pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal. At Jamal's insistence, they return to Mumbai to find Latika and discover that Maman is raising her to be a prostitute. The brothers rescue her, with Salim shooting Maman dead. Impressed by this, Javeda rival crime lord, grants Salim a job. In their room, Salim orders Jamal to leave him alone with Latika, presumably to sexually assault her. When Jamal refuses, Salim draws a gun on him, and Latika persuades Jamal to leave.
In 2004, Jamal, now working as a chaiwala in a call centre, learns that Salim is a high-ranking lieutenant in Javed's crime organisation. Jamal confronts Salim, who pleads for forgiveness. Jamal then sneaks into Javed's residence and reunites with Latika. Although he professes his love for her, she tells him to forget her. Despite the refusal, Jamal promises to wait for her every day at five o'clock at Victoria Terminus. Attempting to meet him there, Latika is captured by Javed's men, led by Salim. He scars her face while driving away. Jamal loses contact with Latika and in a final attempt to reach her, he becomes a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, knowing that she watches the show.
Jamal plays well and becomes popular across India, much to the jealousy and dismay of the show's host, Prem Kumar. Kumar attempts to trick Jamal by feeding him the wrong answer to the penultimate question; however, Jamal answers correctly. When the episode ends, Jamal is arrested and tortured by police Kumar had subsequently called over, who suspect him of cheating. The police inspector eventually believes Jamal's explanations of how he knew each answer, and allows him to return to the show. Latika sees that Jamal was arrested on the news. Feeling guilty about his past behaviour, Salim gives Latika his phone and car keys, asking her to forgive him. After Latika leaves, Salim fills a bathtub with money and sits in it, waiting for Javed to realise what happened.
For the final question, Jamal is asked the name of the third musketeer. Jamal admits to not knowing the answer and uses his "Phone-A-Friend" lifeline to call Salim because it is the only phone number he knows. Latika answers and tells Jamal that she is safe, but does not know the answer. Javed hears Latika on the show and realises that Salim betrayed him. He and his men break down the bathroom door. Salim kills Javed before getting killed by the gang. Relieved about Latika, Jamal guesses and picks the first answer, Aramis. He is correct and wins the grand prize. Jamal and Latika meet on the platform at the train station and kiss.

Cast

Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy wrote Slumdog Millionaire based on the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-nominated novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup. To hone the script, Beaufoy made three research trips to India and interviewed street children, finding himself impressed with their attitudes. The screenwriter said of his goal for the script: "I wanted to get the sense of this huge amount of fun, laughter, chat, and sense of community that is in these slums. What you pick up on is this mass of energy."
By the summer of 2006, British production companies Celador Films and Film4 Productions invited director Danny Boyle to read the script of Slumdog Millionaire. Boyle hesitated, since he was not interested in making a film about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which was produced by Celador. Then Boyle learned that the screenwriter was Beaufoy, who had written The Full Monty, one of the director's favourite British films, and decided to revisit the script. Boyle was impressed by how Beaufoy wove the multiple storylines from Swarup's book into one narrative, and the director decided to commit to the project. The film was projected to cost $15 million, so Celador sought a US film distributor to share costs. Warner Independent Pictures gave $5 million and got the rights to the film.
Gail Stevens came on board to oversee casting globally. Stevens had worked with Boyle throughout his career and was well known for discovering new talent. Meredith Tucker was appointed to cast out of the US. The filmmakers then travelled to Mumbai in September 2007 with a partial crew and began hiring local cast and crew for production in Karjat. Originally appointed as one of the five casting directors in India, Loveleen Tandan has stated, "I suggested to Danny and Simon Beaufoy, the writer of Slumdog, that it was important to do some of it in Hindi to bring the film alive They asked me to pen the Hindi dialogues which I, of course, instantly agreed to do. And as we drew closer to the shoot date, Danny asked me to step in as the co-director." Boyle then decided to translate nearly a third of the film's English dialogue into Hindi. The director fibbed to Warner Independent's president that he wanted 10% of the dialogue in Hindi, and she approved the change. Filming locations included shooting in Mumbai's megaslum and in shantytown parts of Juhu, so film-makers controlled the crowds by befriending onlookers. Filming began on 5 November 2007.
In addition to Swarup's original novel Q & A, the film was also inspired by Indian cinema. Tandan has referred to Slumdog Millionaire as a homage to Hindi cinema, noting that "Simon Beaufoy studied Salim–Javed's kind of cinema minutely." Boyle has cited the influence of several Bollywood films set in Mumbai. Deewaar, which Boyle described as being "absolutely key to Indian cinema", is a crime film written by Salim-Javed based on the Bombay gangster Haji Mastan, portrayed by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, whose autograph Jamal seeks at the beginning of Slumdog Millionaire. Anil Kapoor noted that some scenes of the film "are like Deewaar, the story of two brothers of whom one is completely after money while the younger one is honest and not interested in money." Slumdog Millionaire has a similar narrative structure to Deewaar. Satya, written by Saurabh Shukla, and Company, based on the D-Company, both offered "slick, often mesmerising portrayals of the Mumbai underworld" and displayed realistic "brutality and urban violence." Boyle has also stated that the chase in one of the opening scenes of Slumdog Millionaire was based on a "12-minute police chase through the crowded Dharavi slum" in Black Friday, adapted from Hussein Zaidi's book of the same name about the 1993 Bombay bombings.
Boyle has cited other Indian films as influences in later interviews. The rags-to-riches, underdog theme was also a recurring theme in classic Bollywood movies from the 1950s through to the 1980s, when "India worked to lift itself from hunger and poverty." Other classic Bollywood tropes in the film include "the fantasy sequences" and the montage sequence where "the brothers jump off a train and suddenly they are seven years older".
The producer's first choice for the role of Prem Kumar was Shah Rukh Khan, an established Bollywood star and host of the 2007 series of Kaun Banega Crorepati. However, Khan turned down the role, concerned that he did not want to give his audience the impression that the real show was a fraud by playing a fraudulent host in the movie. Despite the film's success, Khan said that he does not regret turning down the role, and has been a vociferous supporter of the film to its critics. Paul Smith, the executive producer of Slumdog Millionaire and the chairman of Celador Films, previously owned the international rights to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
The cinematography was handled by Anthony Dod Mantle, using mainly digital cinematography rather than traditional film cinematography. It was shot on a digital camera, the Silicon Imaging SI-2K video camera, in 2K resolution digital video. It was the first film to take full advantage of the SI-2K digital camera.