Dev Patel and Anil Kapoor, via Fox Searchlight

It’s a fantasy story that reaffirms the hunger for life. An 18-year-old orphan from Mumbai, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), is one question away from winning 20 million rupees on India’s version of “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?” But no one can believe this kid from the slums really knows all the answers, including the show’s handsome host (Anil Kapoor), who has him arrested on suspicion of cheating. Can Jamal convince the police that there was no foul play behind his knowledge? The film takes us into a series of flashbacks, with each chapter of his life revealing another answer. But each story answers much more than a multiple choice question. Jamal’s life is opened up to us, revealing the trials of this life: from witnessing his mother’s violent death as a child to the cost of winning over his true love. And let’s just say the film opens with a scene of him going to such lengths to get a celebrity’s autograph, that we would never in a million years venture.

Slumdog Millionaire is the latest feature from Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Sunshine), and quite possibly his best. CGG asked Boyle if the film was meant to inspire audiences (His last film Millions caused kids to raise money to build wells in Africa). “It's your own eyes that you open. You're not there to teach anybody anything,” he says. “You're there to learn about yourself, and you do. And these people who live in these slums are extraordinary people, so generous, so resourceful, you know. I wanted it to be something that they'd like, really. I hope they, if they ever see it on a pirated copy somewhere, that they think, yeah that's ok, that's alright.”

One person who admits to learning quite a lot from the film already is the lead actor Dev Patel, who tells us that while playing the character he “matured five years in the space of five months…Yeah, just the character himself, the amount of willpower you’ve got to have to search for this girl all your life.”

Boyle believes that with Obama’s election: “the world is going to become a kind of bigger place again. And that's sort of what you get from doing something like this.” The film is as much a portrait of India as it is about Jamal, and Boyle credits his Mumbai crew for helping him bring the city to life. The buzz of the city is complimented with an amazing soundtrack, featuring the likes of M.I.A. and A R Rahman. CGG is naming Slumdog Millionaire as our must see of the year, for its incredible portrayal of the individual and human growth, its delicate and hopeful portrait of one of the world’s poorest slum, and its inspirational message that anyone is capable of anything.