UK/2008/120 mins/15. Dir: Danny Boyle. With Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Dev Patel.
Jamal, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, finds himself just one question away from winning 20 million rupees on India’s ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’. But he is accused of cheating and arrested — how could a ‘slumdog’ know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life — tales of the slum where he and his brother Salim grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each picaresque episode holds the key to one of the game show’s questions. Fascinating, colourful, romantic and gloriously optimistic, this is Boyle at his bouncing, buoyant best.
"Danny Boyle’s finest since Trainspotting." ***** - Empire