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Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is 18 years old, not formally educated, grew up on the streets in the slum of Juhu and is one question away from winning the grand prize (20 million rupees) on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". He's also in custody, being interrogated by the police on suspicions of cheating and fraud, since there should be no way an 18-year-old uneducated street urchin should be getting all these answers correct.
The film jump-cuts from past to present, often flashing back to explain during the film how Jamal came to know the answers as the questions were asked. The first flashback is to a very young Jamal (Ayush Mahesh Khedekar) and his brother Salim (Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail), who are nearly busted for skipping school but eventually brought there by their mother. They arrive just as the class is about to study the classic Alexandre Dumas book The Three Musketeers. As we see this flashback unfold, we also jump to Jamal's arrival on the game show 24 hours earlier and first question asked by host Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor). The first question is, "Who starred in the 1973 film 'Zangeer'?" Another flashback shows us how Jamal knew the answer to that one, as it turns out that actor was Jamal's favorite as a child. He even escaped a locked portable bathroom through the most disgusting of means possible to meet him (I'll just say you used the bathroom via a hole in the floor and leave it at that). Covered with filth, Jamal runs to the celebrity after he arrives nearby and gets an autographed photo. The celebrity, and the answer to the question, is Amitabh Bachchan. Salim, jealous of his brother, soon sells the autographed photo for a couple of coins, angering Jamal.
The next question is shown above. Jamal wound up asking the audience for help, which got snickers from the host and some of the audience as it's apparently an easy question. (The answer was never given in the film, but it's 'A'.) Cutting back to Jamal in custody, the lead officer (Irrfan Khan) says his 5-year-old daughter even knows that one. Jamal doesn't like having to relate the next story to the officers, but a later question that he answered needs that story to be told. The film flashes back to religious riots that saw their mother get killed. While running, Jamal and Salim see a child dressed as the God Rama, holding a bow and arrow in his right hand. That is the question and answer Jamal got and gave to bring his winnings on the show to 16,000 rupees as we briefly return to the game show setting. The show goes to a commercial, and Prem advises Jamal to quit now and take his winnings.
Cutting back to just after the riots, Jamal and Salim are in a makeshift cave out of the rain. A girl is outside. Jamal eventually invites her in, despite Salim's concerns that she would turn them all in. The girl is Latika (Rubina Ali), and Jamal says she can be their third Musketeer since he and Salim are already Porthos and Athos. Eventually, while the kids are sleeping in a tent at a junkyard, someone arrives who we later learn is named Maman (Ankur Vikal) and brings them all to what seems to be a camp full of children. Everyone seems happy, well-fed and clothed, and all are even taught how to sing Maman's favorite song, "Darshan Do Ghanshyam". During the day, however, they all have to go to "work", which is simply begging on the streets. During this, Salim has become a sort of assistant to Maman, and has gotten a bit ruthless in the process.
One night, Salim is holding a lantern for Maman and a couple of other adults as Maman has kids brought out to him to sing the song. Once one child finishes, one of the adults smothers the child with a chloroform-soaked rag, and then a second adult uses hot oil to permanently damage the eyes. Salim is horrified upon seeing this, and is even more so when he's told to bring Jamal next. Salim goes to get Jamal. Latika also follows to watch out of view. Maman tells Jamal it's time to turn pro. Before he'll sing, however, Jamal asks for 50 rupees since he's now a professional and should be paid. Maman laughs and obliges. As Jamal is singing, Salim throws the chloroform bottle in an adult's face and tells Jamal to run. They, along with Latika, all hop aboard a train to escape. Actually, the boys do, but as Latika has Salim's hand, he deliberately lets go, and she is captured.
The film cuts back to the game show, and Jamal wins 250,000 rupees for knowing that the poet Surdas wrote "Darshan Do Ghanshyam", the song they were taught to sing by Mamas. A brief cut to present time sees Jamal explain to the lead inspector that blind singers make twice as much when begging on the streets. He also says it took a long time to find Latika again.
Flashing back: On the train, Jamal and Salim wind up doing quite well for themselves, earning money for selling food. They do this for a couple of years until accidentally falling off the roof into a sandy embankment while trying to steal someone's dinner. Now older, they come across the Taj Mahal and decide to start up new business, faking their way through giving guided tours, selling photographs and even opening a makeshift shoe store (which is continuously stocked with the shoes they steal of those who leave them outside the Taj). Jamal is giving one tour to some American tourists, but upon returning to the tourists' car they all find it's been stripped. A cop begins beating Jamal, thinking he was part of a scheme, but the tourists stop the beating and give Jamal $100 for his troubles. Flashing forward: The next game show question asks who is on the U.S. $100 bill. Jamal knows it's Benjamin Franklin, and he's now won 1,000,000 rupees.
Back again: We now have teenage Salim (Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala) and Jamal (Tanay Chheda) working in a kitchen. Jamal is still bent on finding Latika again, while Salim just wishes he'd move on and forget about her. While out later, Jamal sees a blind boy singing. He gives the boy his $100 bill. The kid feels Jamal and recognizes that it's him, warning him that Maman never forgets. Jamal asks the boy if he knows where Latika is, and as it turns out, he does. Latika is working on Pika Street and is called "Cherry". Jamal and Salim go there that night and find Latika at a brothel dancing for a customer. Latika recognizes him immediately and is elated, but before things can get too reunion-y, Maman walks in.
Maman begins to threaten the teens but Salim pulls out a revolver and demands money. Maman throws his money on the ground. Salim then says that he's heard Maman never forgets. Maman said he could make an exception. Salim says he can't take that chance, and shoots Maman dead. The teens then run off with the money. A brief flash-forward to the game show shows Jamal winning 2,500,000 rupees for knowing that Samuel Colt invented the revolver, and then we go back in time to where we were, with the teens hiding out at a hotel. Salim leaves the hotel that night and makes his way to Javed Khan (Mahesh Manjrekar), the biggest crime boss in the area, and says he killed Maman. Javed immediately welcomes Salim into the fold. Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Jamal says he and Latika are destiny. This destiny finds a new obstacle as when Salim returns, he says he is now the boss and throws Jamal out. Jamal bangs on the door to be let back in, but Salim opens the door and pulls the revolver out, threatening to kill his own brother. Latika advises Jamal should just go. Flashing forward to current time, Jamal tells the lead inspector that he hasn't seen them since. Another cop badmouths Latika and Jamal goes after him, finding himself then cuffed to the chair. The lead inspector, who seems to have softened his stance by now towards Jamal, tells the other cop to leave for awhile before asking Jamal how he even got onto the show in the first place.
We cut to a scene with Jamal serving tea at the call center he works at. One worker prompts everyone when the time is right to call the "...Millionaire?" show to be a contestant. One of the phone operators has Jamal sit in his spot for a few minutes, and Jamal decides to check the database to find "Latika"s. The search yields over 26,000 results. He then searches for Salim, but uses his full name. 15 results. Jamal starts at the top of the list and calls to see if any of them are his brother. He succeeds with the third name.
Salim (Madhur Mittal), who is now as an adult a high-ranking lieutenant in Javed's organization, invites Jamal to meet him at a construction site. Jamal goes there and finds his brother. Salim is elated to see Jamal, but Jamal initially just punches Salim to the ground. Salim swears that Maman's men were headed to the hotel, so he had to split everyone up and leave the area. Jamal says he'll never forgive Salim. Salim mutters to himself that he knows that. He gives Jamal the key to his apartment and says he should stay there.
Early the next morning, Salim gets a call on his cell phone and heads out with his gun. Jamal, also awakened by the call, follows his brother. The destination winds up a fenced-in large property. Jamal from the outside sees Latika on the inside, and vice versa. Jamal goes to the gate and says he's there for the cook's position that is open. He's told there's no cook's position, but one for a dishwasher. Jamal corrects himself and is let in. He enters the home, and he and Latika engage in a long embrace. Jamal notices she has a black eye, then sees the game show on TV and wonders why everyone's so into that show. Latika says it's because it gives people the chance to escape and start another life.
Javed comes home and it's obvious quickly that he treats Latika like a dog. He turns on a soccer match and wants a sandwich. Jamal makes a sandwich as he tells Latika to come with him away from here, even saying Salim would help them. She says she'll be leaving the city soon enough. The sandwich is awful, and after Javed tastes it and spits it right back up, he tells Jamal to leave. Jamal does so after telling Latika that he'll be at the train station every day at 5PM until she meets him there on one of those days.
Jamal is at the station on one day, and after waiting for awhile he finally does see Latika. However, he sees Salim and a couple of hoodlums running her way too. The hoodlums succeed in grabbing Latika and forcing her into a car. Meanwhile, jumping to the game show, Jamal is asked a question about the sport of cricket. Jamal says he isn't sure of the answer. The show goes to a commercial. During the break, both Jamal and Prem are in the men's restroom. (Yes, this would never be allowed to happen in reality with U.S. Broadcast Standards and Practices, but perhaps those rules are more relaxed elsewhere. Either way, it's a movie, it's fantasy, so let's roll with it. It isn't so outlandish as to completely ruin the film here.) Prem tells Jamal he knows he can win. After Prem leaves, Jamal sees that Prem wrote "B." in the steam of the mirror.
Upon returning to the stage, just before the show goes back on air live, Prem tells Jamal to do the right thing ten seconds from now. What Jamal does is verbally eliminate one of the choices, and then use the 50/50 lifeline, which randomly eliminates two of the wrong answers. The answers that remain are "B" and "D". Jamal goes with "D", Jack Hobbs, as the man who scored the most first class centuries in cricket history. Prem is stunned and tries to convince Jamal that perhaps the answer could be "B", Ricky Ponting, but Jamal sticks with his choice. Prem is visually shaken as he proclaims that Jamal's answer is correct and he has now won 10,000,000 rupees.
The show runs out of time for that day. Prem walks Jamal out, telling him good luck. However, just as Jamal exits the building, he is captured and thrown into a car by the police. Prem is questioned by one of the production people about this, and Prem replies that Jamal is obviously a cheat, even going so far as to admit he fed him the wrong answer and the kid still got it right.
This ends all the flashbacks as the film finishes in the exact present. Jamal tells the police inspector that he only went onto the show because he figured that Latika would see it. The show is now just a couple of hours away from going live on the air, and there is an absolute media frenzy with stories about how Jamal is one question away from winning the grand prize, but right now he's in custody due to accusations of fraud.
Salim is at Javed's house in the midst of a party. He goes to Latika and gives her the car keys, telling her that Jamal will never give up, and she should leave here now as there won't be another chance for her to escape. She asks him what about Javed. Salim simply says he'll take care of it. Salim also gives her his cell phone and assures her she should keep this on her at all times, then asks for forgiveness for everything he'd done up to this point. Latika leaves, although on her way to the studio where the game show is to take place, she gets stuck in horrible traffic, finally deserting the car and running to find a TV. This isn't difficult as the whole country is tuning in to see the show. Jamal is also finally released from custody as the police inspector has determined there is a "bizarre plausibility" to everything he's claimed.
Jamal is back on set and he gets asked the final question. The question is that Porthos and Athos were two of the Three Musketeers. Who was the third? Jamal laughs and says he actually has no idea what the answer is, which is true. He uses his final lifeline to "phone a friend", and since Salim is the only phone number he knows, that's the phone he calls. The phone is ringing on the air, and ringing, and ringing...no answer. Prem asks who he called. Jamal said his brother. Latika, who is watching, realizes the phone is in her car, so she races back and answers just in the nick of time.
A series of cuts between two current happenings then occurs. In one, we see Salim filling a bathtub with money, and Javed with the show on TV in the background of his current happenings realizing that Latika's voice is on the air. Latika admits to Jamal upon hearing the question that she doesn't know the answer, but she tells Jamal that she's safe. Jamal smiles upon hearing this, and doesn't care about how the game ends at this point. He simply chooses Aramis, "A", as his final answer. Meanwhile, Javed busts down the bathroom door and is immediately shot dead by Salim from the tub, who in turn is then shot dead by Javed's henchmen. And as for Jamal...
...Aramis is the right answer, and he has won 20 million rupees, the top prize.
The film ends with Jamal at the train station. Latika arrives and finds him. They embrace and kiss, with the destiny having indeed come to pass.
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20 million rupees, for the record, equates to approximately $411,000 in U.S. dollars. The producers' first choice for the role of Prem Kumar was Shahrukh Khan, an established Bollywood star and the actual host in 2007 of India's version of ...Millionaire?. However, Khan turned down the role since he did not want to give his audience the impression that the real show was a fraud by playing a fraud host in the movie. Since then, Khan has stated that he does not regret turning the role down and he is, in fact, a vehement supporter of the film. Shahrukh was not the first host of the Indian game show. That was Amitabh Bachchan, a very real and famous Indian actor who is the person who the young Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire gets the autograph from. One of the questions and answers presented in the gameplay within the film is incorrect. Surdas did not write the poem/song "Darshan Do Ghanshyam". It was actually Gopal Singh Nepali. Why this is incorrect in the film, I've no idea.
Several controversies were stirred by the film, most notably the portrayal of Indian slums and the fact that most of the dialogue is presented in English. Personally, I take no stock in either of those. I think people are just looking for something to complain about. However, one controversy that had definite ammunition was the welfare of many of the child actors. They had lived, and in some cases, still live in squalor, even during what was the boom period of the film in theaters. For the most part, those involved with the film and many charitable organizations otherwise have been and continue to make sure those children are well maintained and will continue to be so into adulthood. In fact, director Danny Boyle set up funds for the 3 lead child actors into a trust that will be released to them upon their completion of grade school at 16 years of age.
Slumdog Millionaire was a smash when awards season came about. By the time Oscar night happened, with all the top prizes it had garnered already, it was seemingly a foregone conclusion that the movie would win Best Picture as well, especially considering it had a total of 10 nominations within 9 different categories (two nominations were received in the Best Original Song category). That foregone conclusion was confirmed as the film won every category it was nominated in except for Best Sound Editing (which went to The Dark Knight). Wins came for Film Editing, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Original Song, Original Score, Adapted Screenplay, Director and Picture. The top award was won over The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader. This was the final year where just 5 films were nominated for Best Picture, largely (probably, but the Academy will never admit this) because of the fact that such boorish bullshit such as Frost/Nixon and The Reader scored nominations despite being completely unknown and/or unliked within the general public, while massive critical and commercial successes such as The Dark Knight and WALL-E were shut out. Be that as it may, going by the list of what WAS nominated for Best Picture that year, there is zero doubt in my mind that Slumdog Millionaire should have indeed won. The first hour or so were mostly about backstory and building to the climax, and at times it felt a bit slow. But the final 40 minutes were about as riveting and engrossing as anything that hit the silver screen that year. My final answer? Slumdog Millionaire is a winner indeed.
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