Jamal and his brother, Salim, survive on the streets of Mumbai. Salim finds the life of crime agreeable, but Jamal scrapes by with small jobs until landing a spot on the millionaire game show.
A compelling piece of entertainment that poses bigger questions than it answers, Slumdog Millionaire is a modern version of the Cinderella story with some spicy food for thought, and an undeniably sweet core.
The people of Mumbai love their movies, and they'll be proud to know that this throbbing love letter to their city is the most exhilarating film of 2008.
Slumdog Millionaire is an exhilarating ride -- a feel-good yarn about a Mumbai street kid directed by Danny Boyle with a wild energy that makes even Trainspotting (Boyle's calling card) look leaden-footed.
From an early footchase in which the careening camera gives us a tour of the maze-like slums, to the ridiculously uplifting Bollywood dance number that plays over the end credits, Slumdog Millionaire makes for kinetic, exhilarating entertainment.
IGN Movies
February 22, 2015
Heavy with humor, romance and suspense, Slumdog Millionaire is one of the best and most crowd-pleasing films of the year.
Slumdog Millionaire, a film so upbeat and colourful that, by the time you're relaying its infectious air of optimism to friends, you could forget that it features orphans, slaughter, organised crime, poverty, enslavement and police brutality.
Slumdog Millionaire is not the cure for all the world's ills, but it comes close. It solves, for instance, such endemic global problems as: a) sadness, b) lovelessness, c) cynicism, and d) the waning cultural relevance of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
There are so many frantic pursuits through heaving streets that it is easy to lose track of who is chasing whom, or why. Energy and urgency are substituted for realism.