The story is told through flashbacks that explain just how Jamal Malik’s (Dev Patel) is getting so many questions correctly on Prem Kumar’s (Anil Kapoor) game show. Suspicious, Kumar calls the police on Jamal after assuming he’s cheating. Jamal is questioned and more of his life story is revealed much to the initial disbelief of the police officers. Through chance and fate, Jamal’s story proves to be finally satisfying in even the most unlikely condition. The story might be set in India, but Danny Boyle’s mark on this movie is unmistakable. The feeling of isolation and the resembling grit of the film’s setting are perhaps unavoidably significant of Trainspotting. Boyle's editing techniques are also familiar. In one particularly high-octane moment the opening of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” is tangled with a gunfight, the gunshots in sync with the music.
Kinetic directing style, "Slumdog Millionaire" sounds like a fantasy and with Boyle's hyper-kinetic direction involving quick-cutting editing techniques, slow motion and a pop music soundtrack it's tough to tell if this is reality or the director is on a psychedelic trip. Those who haven't seen any of Boyle's past films might have trouble adjusting to the fast editing and loud music Boyle’s uses to make every scene jump out of the screen, mixing traditional Indian music with more familiar pop songs. Key scenes are allowed to dissolve into musically driven interludes. Boyle’s also found some amazing locations for the slums of Bombay, effectively showing its transformation into the developed modern city of Mumbai, which plays a large part in the evolution of the characters.
With so much footage, the filmmakers often revisited sequences, adding more and more material over time. The filmmakers kept adding things in, especially in the scenes where kids are running through the slums in the film. They would add wider shots of the slums or more shots of kids running or more shots of the cricket games.
Furthermore there were some slow-motion frames, which were particularly used for one of the film’s signature scenes of the female lead, Latika (Freida Pinto), standing on a train platform, smiling. The scene where Jamal’s mother killed was strongly brought up by the environment noise with less dialogue as it portrays a feel of disorganised nation. At the last scene, where both protagonists met at the train platform, Jamal kissed Latika scar at the left side of her face, there were flashback scene in reverse order that somehow symbolise kissing away the pain or unhappiness that their destiny will start from the beginning without leaving apart.
Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire decides, richly, to bridge the gap between the two versions of India and provide something out of both environments that is so often forgotten even in our richly blessed lands. In this story, we learn of a young boy born into poverty and endless despair. He’s a thief existing in poverty with no option but to survive or surrender to death. This kid grows up and becomes a young man despite all of the impossibilities force in his way. Slumdog Millionaire is the rare combination of dramatic, visual, and story success that saddens you, surprises you, and restores your faith in the art of filmmaking.
