Slumdog Millionaire opens with a shot of slum kids running. There’s a lot of huffing and puffing in this loud, kinetic movie, which vastly outstrips its source material. Slumdog is based on Q&A, a collection of linked short shorts by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup. He wrote it in haste, and it shows, as Q&A is less a book than an outline. Credit Simon Beaufoy (Miss Pettigrew, Yasmin, The Full Monty) for the much better screenplay, which squeezes Maximum City gangsters into Q&A’s quiz show framework.

It’s a good gimmick. Young British actor Dev Patel, whose ears stick out more than Obama’s, goes on Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) and answers question after question correctly. Bombay cop Irrfan Khan suspects Patel of cheating and tries to extract a confession with a car battery and rubber hose. Patel tells his Dickensian bildungsroman in episodic flashbacks, each of which show how he knew the answer to an individual question. In between beatings, Pate is a lovesick bulldog with eyes only for his childhood crush.

The trouble with the quiz show device is that after a handful of questions, the plot turns into a predictable death march. You check your watch and hope Patel gets his cash sooner rather than later. But the first half is marvelous; and Slumdog’s gorgeous, saturated cinematography reminds me of Millions, director Danny Boyle’s other tale of a boy and his money.

The Indian cast is stronger than the overseas star. Patel sometimes lets his British accent peek through the Bombay English veneer. Bombay model Freida Pinto plays his love interest. She’s Pfeiffer to his Broderick, completely outmatching him in sexual dazzle. Irrfan Khan is making a minor career out of policeman typecasting. Anil Kapoor interprets the game show host as a ruthless monopolist of talent, a male Lata Mangeshkar.

Even the minor actors are recognizable. Raj Zutshi, a minor antagonist in Kidnap, plays a benevolent TV producer in Slumdog. That roly-poly actor who plays a put-upon Bombay constable in countless Bollyflicks does the same thing here. With its Indian casting, this movie could easily be a sibling to A Wednesday or Black Friday.

Slumdog’s pounding soundtrack feels fresh, from the Ting Tings’ ‘Great DJ‘ on the trailer to M.I.A. rapping over the Hindi track ‘O Saya.’ ‘Paper Planes‘ and its remix make an appearance. A Hindu bhajan becomes the fulcrum of one of the stories, and A.R. Rahman fills in the remainder of the score.

After the screening, Boyle stood up front and built up his brown bona fides. He graciously credited Bombay unit chief Loveleen Tandan as co-director. He said he loved Bombay and left only when his funding ran out. Boyle slammed Peter Sellers’ desi caricature and racist British sitcoms in the ’70s. He said the young slum actors spoke little English and had to be subtitled, which dismayed the studio back home.

Though it’s often awash in romantic cheese, you’ll likely remember this energetic flick long afterwards because it brings Suketu Mehta’s Bombay sojourn to life, embodied by a teenager.

The trailer:

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