of movies coming out recently and this movie becomes one of the best! At first I wasn't sure what it exactly was about. On all the year end "best of" lists I saw this movie listed on, it looked like a sappy version of boy loses girl, boy wins ten million rupees, boy finds girl - but oh - it was so much more than that!
Accused of cheating, Jamal is taken away by the police at the end of his first appearance on the popular game show and interrogated. Though uneducated, it is because of his life in the slums in an overcrowded, filthy poor area and his horrific experiences that he is able to answer the questions and become a hero to the poor all around him.
Based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup and adapted for the screen by Simon Beaufov, the directors Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan don't spare us from life inside Mumbai where dirty children sift through garbage to survive and Hindi and Muslims fight in the streets. After Jamal's mother is killed in one of these religious battles, he is forced to fend for himself along with his brother.
Dev Patel portrays the young adult version of Jamal and gives a spectacular performance of a disillusioned young man who trusts no one and can't believe himself that he's won. This movie is filled with wonderful Indian actors, including the original host of the Hindi version of Who Wants to Be an Millionaire.
This movie teaches us that sometimes being smart isn't based only on how many books you've read or the grades you got in school. We know what we know because of our life experiences and how we view the world around us. We choose whether to walk around aimlessly in life or to look around and observe what the world is offering us every minute of every day. To be truly wise, we must find the perfect blend of both being book smart and street smart.
Nausea rating: 2 out of 5 for scenes of torture and extreme poverty
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