http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1874832,00.html
It defies the laws of sociopolitical physics: a young man of low birth and no formal education amassing a fortune by answering obscure questions on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Yet Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a sweet-souled 18-year-old, aces questions about Indian history because he’s lived through it–just barely. He’s grown up in obscene and criminal poverty with his tougher brother Salim (Madhur Mittal). Jamal wants to stay on the show long enough to attract the notice of his lifelong love, Latika (Freida Pinto), whom he’s lost in the billion-strong crowd but who must be out there somewhere. Can’t a slum boy hope for a miracle?
The same long odds applied to Slumdog Millionaire, the Anglo-Indian movie about these outsiders. It was in danger of losing a U.S. theatrical release and going direct to DVD when the company that owned it was shuttered. Yet the film, made for $13 million, has earned nearly $60 million in North America. And after top wins at the Golden Globes and from the Producers and Screen Actors guilds, it’s the front runner to take the Academy Award for Best Picture on Oscar night, Feb. 22. Miracle, anyone? (See the top 10 movie performances of 2008.)
That Slumdog should get anywhere near an Oscar is–like the crazy-wonderful plot twists in a Bollywood musical–both improbable and inevitable. India provided the backdrop for two Oscar-favored dramas of the ’80s: Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (11 nominations and eight wins, including Best Picture, beating E.T.) and David Lean’s A Passage to India (11 nominations, two wins).
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