Cry havoc

Slumdog Millionaire: Subtextually, a story about the rise of the developing-world information service sector. No, seriously, bear with me. From a 1980/90s childhood in abject poverty, picking rags, fleecing tourists and trying to steer clear of beggar lords who would scare the hell out of Charles Dickens, young Jamal finds himself in the post-milennial information world, in legitimate if poorly-paid employment in a call centre catering to the UK (in which the employees have to familiarise themselves with continuous streams of trivia about British culture in order to pass as locals), and, finally, is able to use his encyclopedic knowledge of global information to strike it rich on a programme with a format imported from the UK and sold all over the world, as the police and his local gangster brother both realise that India's place in the global information sphere is bigger than them, give up hindering him and help him to win. The mobile phone runs through it as a symbol of globalisation, information and social connectedness, enabling him in the end to win the girl and gain the confidence to win the game.

Movie count for 2010: 23