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a man who rose from India's slums to the high life as India's highest paid television personality. Initially he publically mocks Jamal, especially after discovering his current employment makes him a tea boy in a call centre. As the movie progresses however he is forced to change his attitude, or at least he wants you to believe he has.

At the movies heart is an enjoyable love story in which two souls are separated continually, and for one it's a continuous struggle to try and be reunited with the one they love. This relationship is put to the test the entire way through the movie.

Slumdog Millionaire's India has been delivered perfectly by director Boyle; it feels like an important Indian movie made by the Indian's themselves. But this is not the case, Boyle who seems here a hundred miles from his shocking Trainspotting roots, maybe accused of going a little bit soft, or even too commercial. As if expecting such criticism he has gone out of the way to prove this not to be the case, and for anyone who remembers the ghastly excrement scene from Trainspotting, be prepared for something far worse here as Jamal is forced to dive into a pit of sewage.

The cast are fantastic, Dev Patel at first strikes you as being a bit of a hollow actor, but this is all the intention of the movies creators, this is a man rocked to his very core, and as the movie progresses you see why. The big congratulations should go to Azharruddin Mohammed Ismail, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, and Rubiana Ali who play the young versions of Salim, Jamal, and Latika. These are the characters' that you spend an equal portion of the movie with, and the ones that you take to your heart long after the credits roll, because while you're aware that Slumdog Millionaire is just a movie, your also aware that the terrible things that happen to the trio do happen each and every day in a very modern India.

The movie musical score includes M.I.A's smash hit single Paper Planes, while other artists give the movie a very modern feel in case you were in any doubts as to the movies timeframe. While fans of Bollywood movies will undoubtedly enjoy the movies full cast in-credit dance sequence. As for the best movie of 2008, perfect is pretty close for this movie, but you feel that it runs just a little too long.

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