DVDs in Review

Slumdog Millionaire

Title: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Release date: June 1 2009

Certificate: 15

Format: Reviewed on DVD, available on Blu-ray

DVD RRP: 19.99

Rating: 4.5/5

Danny Boyle's breathless trip hot on the heels of a Mumbai orphan was the runaway smash of last year, receiving a plethora of accolades including the Best Picture and Director Oscars. Not bad considering that it was originally slated for a direct-to-DVD release. Now that the disc is hitting the shelves, it's a perfect time to immerse yourself in this larger than life tale.

The plot revolves around Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), the titular orphan who ends up on the Indian version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'. He's just about to asked the final question when the show ends, forcing him to wait until the next day to finish his highly unlikely ascent.

Naturally, the cops smell a rat. How can a poor kid from the slums be doing so well? Jamal is tortured for answers but he relents and in the end the police simply ask him how he knew each answer - an ingenious plot device that constructs a series of vignettes that develop Jamal's back-story and present dilemma.

Through Jamal's recollections we follow him and his friends and family from a very young age right up to the show's finale, via a Dickensian tale of love, social boundaries, crime, travel, innocence lost and guilt accepted - most of which revolving around money.

Via Boyle's inimitable showman's style we see India divided between the poor, filthy slums and the glossy, rich heights with Jamal as our guide, hopping from one to the next in his quest to survive using only his wits and irrepressible personality.

He comes off as a modern Oliver Twist and while he is an intriguing characterisation (the whole cast is brilliant in fact), it is Boyle's storytelling skills that are really on display.

The plot is essentially very simple, even clichéd and the characters are archetypical but through Boyle's kinetic approach he jumbles up a classic Frank Capra-esque 'little man against the big system' film and meshes it into a masterpiece of composition.

'Slumdog Millionaire' never slows down, and yet somehow manages to interject the suspense of a game show with the drama of brotherly rivalry and unrequited love. It rightly won the Oscars for Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Writing, Music as well as Picture and Director - it is a perfect example of all of the elements coming together to give it their all.

No one performance or scene stands out; instead it is a dazzling patchwork of behind the scenes teamwork that deserves its new-found audience.

An uplifting (but nowhere near as sickly sweet as the awful posters would have you believe) film, 'Slumdog Millionaire' is certainly worth its weight in gold. The DVD from Fox contains deleted scenes and a 20-minute documentary.