Slumdog Millionaire

Went to see Slumdog Millionaire recently and have been talking with people about it ever since. It's a movie that works on a lot of different levels, and it reminded me of a Rushdie novel in the way the elements are combined. There a fantastic fairy taleness aspect, a lot of gritty realism, and plenty to chew on regarding questions of responsbility, choices, and human nature. Personally I've had about all the game shows I can stand thanks to "reality tv", so I appreciated that the game show is not actually the real point of the movie. It's a device, a reference point really, to look back through the main character's life. On one level I did find myself wanting to know if he would win the game, and on another I thought it was a very clever comment on a global cultural phenomenon. Do we succeed through luck, or destiny? That is one of the questions the film tackles.

It is a violent movie, although not gratuitously so. And the love story is one of the main stories of course. I say one of, because although it gets billed sometimes as primarily being a love story, to my mind it was even more about how two brothers growing up in the same circumstances can make quite different choices. I was left asking a lot of questions about suffering and responsibility. Can we point purely to circumstances to justify our choices? The movie suggests not.

It is also not so easy to dismiss this as a story about one guy who gets a lucky break. Yes, there is that, but there are also some scenes which left me thinking about all those who didn't get any relief or escape from their slavery. The scene where our hero bumps into the blind beggar he shared part of his childhood with was one of the most powerful. We can enjoy the Bollywoodish fairy tale thread, but the film isn't going to let us off that easy. Religious hypocrisy and questions about fatalism are in there too.

Some have characterised this as a "good brother and bad brother" story. It isn't that clear cut or simple. The "bad" brother is sometimes good, sometimes his actions, even in his context, are pretty awful. Does he redeem himself at the end? I found his story the most thought provoking because it was the most realisitic in terms of his choices. It's tragedy in the classic sense: power, hubris, troubled conscience, nihilism, and a world disintegrating. Had he become as hypocritical as the villains that influenced his childhood? Were they the products of similar backgrounds?

One of the criticisms of the film from some quarters is that they consider it anti-Hindu. I don't think that's deserved. This is about human nature, and we wouldn't be hard pressed to find selfishness, greed, poverty, and exploited children in many other parts of the world. What it does do, through some frenetic camera work, is capture the innocence of the children and the impact of a swirling nonsensical world. I think one of the reasons this film succeeds is that it doesn't moralise every point of the story, but just presents it as is. The police officers attitude to the "slumdog" is an example - it is a given that one can look down on and mistreat another because of their social position. The movie simply presents this attitude, and leaves you to be impacted by it.

This film is funny, disturbing, thought provoking, and entertaining. It's about love and corruption, childhood and choices, depravity and responsibility. A game show might change one person's life, but does it change who they are? And what of all those who continue on without rescue. Is it circumstances that dictate character, or choices?

And for sure, there's some great music.

Note: The only link I don't recommend below is the Review. It's more like a comment thread and has been hit by spammers.