Slumdog Millionaire
Based on Vikas Swarup’s inventive novel Q & A, the 2008 Best Picture winner took Swarup’s framework and structure but turned it into a journey of greater scope and with a more satisfying narrative. Both are about an orphan from Mumbai imprisoned by authorities for cheating on a quiz show. Furthermore, both go back into the protagonist’s life as he explains the incredible events that taught him the answers to the quiz show’s questions.
Swarup’s novel is more episodic though than Danny Boyle’s pulsing, thrillingly alive drama, which uses Jamal Malik’s (Dev Patel) motivation to appear on the game show as a way to win the attention of his crush, Latika (Freida Pinto). In the novel, his motivation for appearing on the show does not arrive until the final chapter, diminishing the novel of the same drive that ignites Boyle’s film. Meanwhile, without an episodic structure, the film becomes more compelling, further examining Jamal’s relationship with his manipulative older brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal).
In Swarup’s book, protagonist Ram Mohammad Thomas auditions for the quiz show to take revenge on the host, who abuses his former employer. The audience has more of a rooting interest in Jamal than Ram, whereas Danny Boyle’s bold film – filled with kinetic cinematography, brisk pacing and a dazzling musical score from A.R. Rahman – brings the vivid colour and romance of India, as well as the squalor of slum life there, front and centre.