Slumdog Millionaire - By Danny Boyle.

A totally AMAZING film :D To be honest, it’s even better than the hype, which I really didn’t expect.

My friends and I decided to go and watch it together, partly because we hadn’t been to the cinema in a long time and also because everyone KEPT on going on about it. Updating facebook status for starters!

Anyway so we made our way to valley park, purley way. The nearest and most convenient cinema for us! Our usual lateness, we already had missed about 5mins of the beginning. We got sat down and straight away got caught up in the story. Some of the scenes were amazing and proper hit you, well it had that impact on me. Jamal and Salim, two brothers who are born in the slums are shown to grow up together despite losing their mum at a young age because of a religious uprising. They live and work their way through India jumping from job to job just to earn some money.

Salim, the older brother, is obsessed with money and being in control, whereas Jamal, the younger brother, is slightly naive with a sweeter character. Jamal falls in love with a girl called Latika who has been his childhood friend. They get separated at a young age when the brothers are escaping from a group of gangsters operating in India. It is complete madness and definitely the most upsetting bit of the whole film.. :'(

In complete bollywood style, the brothers grow up in one quick scene which was SO predictable. I remember whispering to my friend ‘I bet they’ll grow up’ AHA. So they grow up, are suddenly well intelligent and can speak fluent English (DUNNO HOW THAT HAPPENED?!). Jamal decides to go look for Latika who he got separated from some time back. It’s great how he still remembers her and would most probably do anything to find her again, but it is somehow a little unrealistic how he tracks her down. Hmm..

After that, Jamal gets separated from his brother Salim at some point and starts doing his own thing really. Sometime goes by and Jamal weirdly gets in touch with his brother again! Jamal still remembers what his brother did when he took Latika away from him and doesn’t feel like he can forgive him. He has a feeling that his brother knows where Latika is, but Salim doesn’t mention anything for a reason. Jamal still has so much love for her and follows Salim to where Latika is and bumps into her again. They want to run away together but many things hold Latika back and sacrifies her love for the safety of them both.

Jamal gets himself onto the show, ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.’ This is where the legendary Anil Kapoor is introduced! Many people may not agree, but I think Anil Kapoor is bloody amazing. He’s well cute for an old guy (LOL) and is a great actor! During the gameshow, Anil Kapoor suspects that Jamal might be cheating and gets him arrested after he answers the 1 million rupee question.

The film shows Jamal telling his story to the police officer, and relates each question from the gameshow to his life proving that he knew all the correct answers and wasn’t cheating. It really felt like a Bollywood film but in English, and no songs. Well actually, it was a mixture of Hindi and English, but still.. Does that even make sense? You have to watch it to understand!

Everything works out in the end, when Latika and Jamal are reunited again, for good this time! A lovely happy ending which definitely brought a smile to the audience’s face :)

All in all, I’d say it was one of the best films I’ve seen in a very long time and Dev Patel's role as Jamal was played brilliantly. The story line was impressive, even though to people who may not be familiar with Bollywood films might find it was a little fast? Everything was so REAL about the film and definitely received tons of positive feedback! Grrrreat work!