Over the weekend I went to watch the new film 'Slumdog Millionaire'. I hadn't seen the trailer beforehand, nor read the synopsis - I'd just heard that it was a 'feel-good' film.
It's one of the best films I've seen this year, although I'm not sure how good it made me feel. The storyline - a uneducated young man who came from the slums of Mumbai wins 20 million rupees on the gameshow 'Who wants to be a Millionaire?'. The explanation to how he knows the answers leads back to events that have happened in his life.
What this basic, rather dry, description doesn't prepare us for is the wealth of emotion both depicted in the film and drawn out of us, the audience. Whenever we read the economic news, India is always presented as the up-and-coming economic power, with a rapidly growing population and emerging competitor to the West. What we forget is how poor much of that population is. There's a major gap between the poor and the rich in India, as there is in many countries, but not so much in the UK. Life in the slums is still perhaps not as bad as for the orphans - who rummage amongst rubbish tips to find food, or are taken into begging syndicates, or prostitution. Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist' seems a ridiculous parody. The cinema was packed, but there was hardly a sound for much of the film.
Where there was sound, it was mostly laughter. Because what makes this film excellent is that it tugs at your heartstrings, but it's not asking for sympathy, or pity. This is how life is for many people in India, how they live. What is most heart-warming, and perhaps amazing to us, is how the children enjoy life to the full no matter how bad things seem to be. In this way, it is truly a 'celebration of life'. In the end, it all ends happily (although up to the last few minutes, after years of watching Hong Kong gangster films, I had my heart in my mouth waiting for a final gunshot) - but it is a film set in the country of Bollywood after all. How could it not be a happy ending?
If it hadn't been a happy ending, it could have been a very depressing film. As it was, it was a reminder not to take our lives and the things in it for granted - things like money, a roof over our heads, but also love, family, friends. And never to give up for the things that are important.
If that sounds a bit too heavy for you, then there's also the beautiful Frieda Pinto, who plays the grown-up Latika. And the grown-up Jamal, played by Dev Patel, is also quite good-looking, if you like his style. If that still doesn't persuade you, watch it to see what India is really like, for people of all social strata.
I love Wallace and Gromit, the writers have a brilliantly wry and British sense of humour - and as my friend points out, they actually create a storyline which works without taking itself too seriously. The amount of attention to detail and the painstaking effort required to film it frame by frame is worthy of our appreciation in itself. How is it that they can convey more expression via modelling clay than most computer-generated animations seem able to do?(excepting some Disney and/or Pixar films - I won't concede all.)
