Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire DVD Edition

Jamal Malik arouses the suspicions of the Indian game show host Who Wants To Be A Millionaire by getting the first series of questions correct.

Film making 23/25
Cinematography 23/25
Audio 24/25
Bonus Features 18/25
Total 88/100

Jamal Malik is an orphan from the Juhu Slums of Mumbai who through a series of unusual events is given the answers to questions he later is given in the game show. When he gets a spot on the game show Who Wants To be A Millionaire because he knows a lifelong friend will be watching events conspire to give him all the answers.

Throughout his life Jamal has had things tough from childhood when his family is killed in Muslim riots and he scrounges out a living moving from one place to another with his brother. The events that occur in his life that give him the answers are shown in flash backs from his early childhood as he and his brother go from one place to another merely surviving.

They meet with a young girl that Jamal falls in love with after their mother is killed in riots and they end up with a man who trades kids as slaves and prostitutes. When they escape from him their friend, Latika, is left behind and Jamal spends the next several years searching for her.

He gets into one incident after another that will eventually give him answers to the questions on the show but the show's host does not believe him. The host informs the authorities that he must be cheating after the first day of correct answers and wants answers himself.

Police are tipped off at the end of filming of the first day and are waiting for him outside the studio where they force him to talk at the police station during the night. When they find out nothing other than the stories he tells of his answers and how they are a part of his life they finally believe he is not cheating and leave him to go back to the final days show.

During this whole time after parting ways with his brother he has been trying to get back with Latika who is being forced into prostitution but had not been sold yet because he was not finished training her. Jamal thinks she will see that he is on the show and will escape to be with him and she eventually does after his brother kills the man who has been holding her as a slave.

Jamal's brother, Salim, has gone to a life of crime and has taken up with criminals who are behind some of the crimes in the city. Salim ends up working for a man who is a big criminal in India and ends up owning Latika who he says is her girlfriend but treats her like a slave.

Jamal ends up winning the game show after the host who was a previous winner gives him the wrong answer in hopes that Jamal will lose and leave the show. Jamal does not trust him and gives the other response instead winning the show and finding Latika after the show is over.

The film is very well written and filmed with plenty of emotion and raw power that is unusual for a movie these days. The movie had a very good reception and is very well rated with a host of accolades and several awards including eight Academy Awards out of ten nominations.

The film Slumdog Millionaire took critics and audiences by storm and was a big hit in theatres and will be as a home movie as well. The movie is great and had plenty going for it with its strong Indian cast and great direction from Danny Boyle.

The DVD edition has additional content with two commentary tracks, deleted scenes and a making of feature with a music video type feature. The bonus content gives you some insight mostly into the film making with the two commentaries and the making of feature being the better of the additional content.

Slumdog Millionaire is a great movie and well worth watching in any edition but the DVD has only a limited amount of good bonus content. The Blu-ray edition might have more content that is worthwhile but I did not receive that one for reviewing.