Best game in town

Life events entangled in contest in 'Slumdog' **** ( 4 STARS)

Slumdog Millionaire is a tinderbox of comedy and drama about a ragamuffin in Mumbai (aka Bombay) who, at age 18, becomes a contender on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It's a movie of kaleidoscopic contradictions and dazzling clarity. In this Dickensian extravaganza, a scrappy underclass hero comes to stand in for all of us. He teaches by example that if you sift through traumas and disappointments and get to the bottom of your own life, you can mine something of value. Surrender with humility to destiny, and you may just discover that you've written your destiny yourself.

The award for winning India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: 20 million rupees. Self-awareness and integrity: priceless.

Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy's devilishly innovative adaptation of Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A begins by addressing the movie's audience with a Millionaire-like question (spelled out on the screen): "Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it? A. He cheated. B. He's lucky. C. He's a genius. D. It is written." We don't hear the answer to that question, or Jamal's final answer on Millionaire, until the final flurry of actions and reactions. Instead, the director, Danny Boyle (Trainspotting), immediately pulls you into a matrix of volatility and suspense.

An enigmatic undercurrent courses between the oddly serene teenager Jamal (Dev Patel), who usually works as a chai wallah or tea server in a mobile phone company, and the slick yet smarmy Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor), the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Before you can get your bearings, director Boyle depicts an intense police inspector (Irrfan Khan) and his jolly sergeant (Saurabh Shukla) brutally questioning Jamal about the scam they think has enabled him to move toward the game's final question. As they study a recording of the game show, Jamal explains the traumas that have defined his short, unhappy life - traumas that have seared the answers to Prem Kamur's questions into Jamal's brainpan. The interrogation and the game show provide a complex narrative framework. The flashbacks to Jamal as a grade-schooler and then as a 13-year-old function, ironically, like a play within the play.