"Slumdog Millionaire" (2008)

Pauline Kael, the longtime New Yorker film critic, was known for decrying the pompous critical barrier between "art" and "trash." Almost alone among serious critics of her time, she recognized the legitimacy of the popular film form, dictating that good trash is preferable to bad art. While she was credited with spotlighting European cinema’s achievement in raising the bar of realism and relevance, she also was able to appreciate what she called "movie movies." By that term she meant to laud the skillful creative efforts that produced films that make audiences glad to spend time and money watching them, even if they are not labeled as "art" or "important" in any way other than as entertainment.

"Slumdog Millionaire" is, I think, the kind of film Kael would have enjoyed. She would have praised it despite its ultimate sentimentality, its low brow pop culture references, its mix of gritty reality and romantic fantasy.

Kael also would have observed that its story arc owes perhaps too much to Charles Dickens and even more to Warner Brothers Depression Era potboilers like "Angels With Dirty Faces" (1938), epics which trace the arduous path of street urchins. Kids from the New York ghetto grow to be priest, gangster, and girl between them. The gangster will save the lives of his childhood pals, sacrificing himself for their future.

The transparent manipulation of the audience to fear for the lives of children, she might have noticed, has been a staple of film making since Chaplin ("The Kid"). She also might have said that Steven Spielberg, to whom that kind of theme was a signature of his early movies, would have envied Danny Boyle’s picture. Recently, "City Of God" (2002), repeated the theme for the slums of Rio de Janeiro, with a sense of the violence of our time.

"Slumdog" follows the typical pattern, transposed to Bombay’s (now Mumbai) slums, but adds a bonus for Western audiences, as the odyssey of Jamal, Salim, and Latika not only takes us from Bombay to Agra and Delhi and back to Mumbai, it also traces India’s evolution from apparent hopelessness to high tech commercial power.

When I was there thirty five years ago, I never would have dreamed that a country with so much pervasive poverty could achieve anything near the prosperity that India has accomplished in this time. If the picture is anything more than wishful fantasy, the changes are amazing.

The film reminded me of the complex feelings I had during my month there: fascination, admiration, and at the same time, horror. Begging children, hustlers of all kinds, poverty so crushing that it takes your breath away, were all overwhelming.

I remember thinking of the irony when these children (depicted in the picture at the top of this post) who had been begging for "baksheesh" so pathetically, suddenly began to laugh at Bijou's blowfish faces, then demanded more to laugh at, and just as suddenly, lined up to have their picture taken.

"Slumdog" is about the miracle of hope against impossible odds, not just of survival, but of achieving happiness. It is a children's tale, yes. Maybe no less fantastic than "Harry Potter", but rooted in a real world we have to live in, it gives hope that there is a place for a feel good movie movie to entertain us as well as bring us closer together.