Survival on a 50-50 lifeline

With Slumdog Millionaire, director Danny Boyle recaptures the energy, exuberance and brio of Trainspotting, the 1996 film that made his reputation.

Based on a novel adapted by Simon Beaufoy (his best work since The Full Monty), Slumdog Millionaire is a triumph. But it couldn't be further from Edinburgh: it's a Dickensian epic set in India between the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1992 and Bombay's reincarnation as the boomtown of Mumbai.

Jamal (played as an adult by Dev Patel from Skins) is orphaned and survives, artful Dodger-style, on his wits with his elder brother Salim; but they cannot rescue the third young "musketeer", the doe-eyed Latika. Jamal gets a job in a call centre but never stops searching for Latika.

Salim becomes a gangster. as in Dickens, good is rewarded: Jamal goes on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the answer to each question coming from some moment in his life. This flashback structure proves a goldmine for Boyle, who moves the story on with irresistible momentum up to the moment when Jamal is suspected of cheating and beaten up by the police. But he's soon back in the chair winning the top prize.

Doing no favours to the Indian Tourist Board (the background is one of brutality and police corruption), Slumdog Millionaire is a paean of praise to the subcontinent and its people, filmed in vibrant colours by anthony Dod Mantle, and culminating in a song-and-dance number on Mumbai station like a Bollywood remix of Oliver!

Slumdog Millionaire