"Slumdog Millionaire" is a giddy, breathtaking experience, kind of like winning a million bucks. It's also tough, violent and shocking in depicting the welfare of poor children in Mumbai (the former Bombay).

In the end, though, taking a cue from the Bollywood films of India, there's a dance to joy.

It's the story of an orphaned teenager from the slums named Jamal, who somehow makes it onto the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," climbing to the show's final question worth $20 million rupees (about $400,000).

Accused of cheating, he's arrested and tortured by police. Under interrogation, his journey to fame is chronicled in a series of flashbacks. Each vignette, each life experience with older brother Salim, is an insight into how this youngster correctly answered the TV show's questions foisted on him by its smarmy host (the guy ain't no Regis Philbin).

There's Jamal's life on the streets, his work as a low-status tea server in a call center and facing an older, mobster brother who stole his girl.

The film is being distributed in a slow, market-by-market, awards-conscious pattern by Fox Searchlight. Living in London, Danny Boyle, the energetic British director of "Trainspotting" and the cool zombie flick "28 Days Later," is going with the flow of how Hollywood does things, marketing-wise.

"If you're here (in the U.S.), you play the system," he said, understanding that the best time for a film like this is late in the year, avoiding the stampeding blockbusters.

He's content with guiding smaller, less-expensive projects. In 2000, after the hot response to "Trainspotting," he got a shot at "The Beach," which cost $55 million and starred Leonardo DiCaprio.

The $13 million budget for "Slumdog Millionaire" was more comfortable.

"With $55 million, I find it difficult to mobilize and inspire than with a small crew," he said. "There's the unions and the salaries. I like to make $13 million look like $100 million."

And he succeeds with "Slumdog Millionaire," which vividly captures life in a teeming city of extremes in a country of more than a billion people. It's a raw and sensitive take on the lives of youngsters coming up the only way they know how: begging, surviving, earning money as unofficial guides for tourists (the Taj Mahal makes a spectacular appearance).

Boyle directs children, particularly the wondrous preteen youngsters, in a manner that harvests their energy, adventurousness and tragedy.

For the charming and rascally Jamal and Salim, there was an extensive search. "Everybody in India, including the kids, love movies," said Boyle. The auditions were conducted in Hindi, the language spoken for about a quarter of the film. "Slumdog Millionaire" utilizes unique subtitles, not at the bottom of the screen, but in various places, boxed and colored. They're a perfect fit.

He hired Indian casting director Loveleen Tandan "to help with the culture, to tell me when I was wrong." A fledgling filmmaker, in the final credits she'd earned the title "co-director."

The people of Mumbai were welcoming, said Boyle. "We went in with the right attitude: respectful. They basically said, 'Just don't show us pitifully.' These are dignified people who work hard. Even when they get a chance to leave, they don't. They want their sense of community.

"We didn't hide anything. I hope they're proud of it, when they see it."

Boyle spent a year in Mumbai, "and they had to drag me away at the end. It's a provocative place, ceaseless motion.

"You leave India, and it never leaves you. It's always changing and always the same. Like the ocean."

Oh, Danny boy, "Slumdog Millionaire" doesn't leave you, either.

"Slumdog Millionaire." Rated: R. Running time: 2 hours. 3.5 stars

To find out more about Lee Grant and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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