I loved the film and found it to be a perfect mix of mainstream appeal & indie film making sensibility. The story is conventional in a sense, but the execution of it is anything but. The way the back story of the characters is weaved in with the questions on Millionaire is very effective, and even though you get the sense that you know how it's going to end, you really don't care because you're strapped in for the ride after the first flashback scene.

I don't think I've been to a movie here before where the audience is cringing and ooohing and aaahing all the way through, and ended with applause. Make sure you stay for the credits, there's a sequence you need to see, at the theater I saw it everyone let out a "oooooohhh shit!" expression when it came on.

All of the acting is great, especially the kids who play younger versions of the three characters, and they're absolutely adorable. The casting director did a great job, no wonder Boyle gave her a co-directing credit.

Boyle's style and the Mumbai setting combine to create a visual style that's full of energy, colour, and life. I lived in B-Bay for 3 months, and even worked in one of the slums depicted in the film and in my opinion Boyle totally nailed it. He was able to address the reality of living in a slum without dwelling too much on things that usually distract Western filmmakers (bad sanitation) and kept focus on what really matters - people, characters.

It was great to see Anil Kapoor (the host of Millionaire, biggest star in Bollywood in the 80's) getting some shine as a villain for a change, and of course Irfan Khan is always on-point.

If this film isn't nominated for a few Oscars it will be a crime. But of course it wouldn't be the first time that a great film is overlooked, or that the Academy used some xenophobic criteria to eliminate a film - "We can't nominate that film, it's set in a foreign land and uses subtitles for 1/3 of the film - Americans don't like those films"