What We're Watching

REVIEW
Sold with one skewed eye on the Mamma Mia feel-good market, this instant classic ain't no walk in the park, as advertised.

Instead it's a testing canter through Indian squalor with some painful pitstops on the way. However, you're promised a money-shot and Jamal (Dev Patel) does his best to hit the jackpot as the Indian kid from nowhere who seems to know everything.

Structurally, it's a gem. Each question posed by the sleazy quiz show host teases out another gobbet of Jamal's history. So from mucky-faced musketeer, to street-smart shyster to a love-lorn man on a mission (Frieda Pinto's Latika is a dream) Jamal's journey runs parallel with his nerve-shredding turn on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.

From nowhere, he's the people's champ, defying the odds, bidding to win one for the slumdogs. Think BGT's mousy Susan Boyle crawling through a sewage pipe to land a cheese and pineapple treat.

You can't fault Danny Boyle's eye for the whiplash visuals along Mumbai's ratruns. You can't deny the Baftas and the Oscars. Try as you might (and you probably won't because you bought it) you won't resist the march of its dazzling charms.