I have heard it said that if you want to know what the British Army was like in the Nineteenth Century, take at look at the Indian Army in the Twentieth. Well, if you want to get back in touch with your inner Charles Dickens, watch Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, a tale of two young men surviving on their own wits in modern Bombay.
It's a splendid movie: well written and acted, and visually captivating. Without giving too much away, the main character appears on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" He is stunningly successful and this leads to his immediate arrest on suspicion of cheating. In a rather brutal interrogation, he is asked to explain how he knew the answers to each of the questions, despite the fact that he was a former street urchin, with no education. His answers and memories are the device with which the movie tells its story. Though that story is a rather simple fairy tale, it is a Dickensian fairy tale and that creates a powerful resonance. There were moments in the movie when I half expected someone to belt out a number from Oliver!
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the story is that its protagonist, Jamal Malik, is a person of almost perfect honesty. In explaining to the police chief how he knew the answers to the quiz questions, he ends up confessing to any number of petty crimes. Why do you do this, the incredulous officer asks? "When someone asks me a question," Jamal replies, "I give him the answer." The police officer lets Jamal go because he realizes that the young man is simply incapable of lying.
That honesty has some connection to the fact that Jamal is someone in whom love never, ever dies. But the story is not naive. Jamal survives only by the protection of his older brother, who shares none of Jamal's scruples, and is far more aggressive.
Slumdog Millionaire is not one you want to miss.
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