Starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, and Irrfan Khan, Slumdog Millionaire was just included in Entertainment Weekly magazine’s predictions of possible Oscar nominees in both the Best Picture and Best Director categories.
Winner of the 2008 Toronto Film Festival People’s Choice Award, Slumdog Millionaireis the story of Jamal Malik (Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”
But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Pinto), the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions.
Each chapter of Jamal’s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show’s seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show?
When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out…
The result is the sweeping, stylish, intoxicatingly human experience of Slumdog Millionaire, the new film from acclaimed director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, Millions, 28 Days Later, Sunshine). Part exhilarating love story, part eye-catching journey into the underbelly of the so-called “maximum city” of Mumbai, part stirring tale of an Everyman’s triumph against a harsh, cynical world, Slumdog Millionaire is a visceral, action-packed Dickensian epic for the 21st Century. At the heart of its exuberant storytelling lies the intriguing question of how anyone comes to know the things they know about life and love.
The acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire opens on Wednesday, November 12, in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Toronto. It will then be released in additional cities across the country on November 21 and throughout December.
