There are plenty of other promotional photos of Slumdog Millionaire you will see, but none tell the story better than this one. Slumdog Millionaire is about a boy born into dire poverty in Mumbai who finds a way out of the worst imaginable circumstances, motivated by love for a girl, armed only with his wits, intelligence and survival skills. He's like Oliver Twist, but scrappier.
He is at the whim of fate, but makes the best of it. He's thrown off a train in front of the Taj Mahal where he anoints himself a "guide", instructs tourists to take off their shoes, then steals the shoes and sells them.
We learn the details of his first 20 years when he is a contestant on India's TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. How does a poor boy from the slums, a slumdog, know all the answers? We learn in a series of flashbacks how life's tragedies and sorrows befell Jamel in his childhood providing him the answers to each question. A whole country is gathered 'round the TV rooting for the underdog in this movie. And the underdog prevailed at the Oscars.
It's one of those movies you keep returning to in your mind days and weeks later. My rating: 4 stars.
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