Slumdog deserves both millions and awards

I would consider myself a movie connoisseur so over winter break, when I was watching the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards and kept hearing the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” win numerous awards and walk away with twice as many on the 81st Annual Academy Awards, I was actually very skeptical of this low-budget film.

By Chelsea Oliver

Sports Editor


I would consider myself a movie connoisseur so over winter break, when I was watching the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards and kept hearing the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” win numerous awards and walk away with twice as many on the 81st Annual Academy Awards, I was actually very skeptical of this low-budget film.

“Slumdog Millionaire,” directed by Danny Boyle and starring Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, took home four Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best screenplay, and best original score and eight Oscars, for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best original score, best original song (for the song “Jai Ho”), best film editing, best cinematography, and best sound mixing.


Considering all of the awards that “Slumdog Millionaire” won, I thought I would see for myself if it really measured up to such high-standards and deserved each of those honors.

The movie is a story of a boy, Jamal, from the slums becoming a contestant on the Indian version of the show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” However, time runs out on the show with the final question remaining. While taping for the show ends that night, Jamal is arrested for possibly cheating, because no one, even people much more educated and wealthy than Jamal, has ever made it as far as he has so far on the game show.

Overnight, while the hype of Jamal grows, he is interrogated by police for how he knows the answers to every question. As they go through each question Jamal tells of his life story, growing up with only his older brother, Salim, in the slums of India. Each answer fits perfectly with a story of their childhood and their ability to survive on nothing while they grew up in a poverty-stricken and divided world. But as the story plays out, so does the truth about the real reason why Jamal became a contestant on the game show.
Each scene blended well into the next with the action on screen and music in the background. It was as if every possible detail was checked for clarity over and over. For best original score and best song, “Slumdog Millionaire” brought a soundtrack that was not only intriguing but also kept the film moving and the audience captivated. The soundtrack is definitely on my next shopping list. Best director deservingly goes to Boyle as he took a very low budget film and made it into a classic that will be cherished forever.


Boyle was able to take a beautiful story, add no-name actors into the mix and come out with a masterpiece. Even though none of the actors themselves were able to snag an Oscar or a Golden Globe, they certainly will be seen again on the big screen because their talented director was able to bring the best out in each of them in this film.
As for best picture, “Slumdog Millionaire” could not be beat by any other movie that was nominated in the category for either award show. Although “Frost/Nixon,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Reader,” “MILK” and “Revolutionary Road” were all good movies, none of them could stand up to the realization of the slums of India and the fight for a lost, but destined to be, love between two people that risked everything to be together.