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Top British filmmaker Danny Boyle's new Mumbai-based film "Slumdog Millionaire" won rave reviews Friday after its screening at the close of the London Film Festival.
The movie follows a poor boy's rise to fortune as an unlikely contestant on an Indian version of the hit television game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," with the trials and tribulations of life in Mumbai's slums as a backdrop.
The Independent newspaper hailed the British filmmaker's collaboration with Bollywood megastar Anil Kapoor, saying the movie even topped "Trainspotting," Boyle's 1996 hit which made the young Briton's name.
"'Slumdog Millionaire' is an exhilarating ride... with a wild energy that makes even 'Trainspotting' (Boyle's calling card) look leaden-footed," the daily said.
The film "looks a certain hit (and) suggests that collaborations can be of mutual benefit and it is hard to think of many other recent British movies that have the energy tapped here," it added.
The Times was equally impressed, giving it four out of five stars after the screening closed the London event on Thursday evening. "The fairytale power of the film is in watching a city evolve through the eyes of a child," it said.
"There’s a comic poetry about it that feels totally in tune with its Indian setting," its reviewer said, calling the movie a "festival finale that puts a spring in your step and brings a tear to the eye."
The movie tells of how slum orphan Jamal -- played by London-born actor Dev Patel -- is just one question away from winning a whopping 20 million rupees (400,000 dollars) when he is arrested on suspicion of cheating.
Bollywood megastar Anil Kapoor, appearing in his first English-language role, and newcomer Freida Pinto also star in the film scripted by Simon Beaufoy ("The Full Monty") and inspired by Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A."
The Daily Telegraph said the film was "one of a kind liable to send audiences happily skipping out into the cold London night."
"Slumdog Millionaire is that rarity, a populist, mainstream entertainment that finds a way to deliver cheerful uplift to its audience without ever insulting the intelligence. A terrific festival climax," it said.
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