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Serious buzz had been generating on the streets of Hollywood ever since the Baftas for the previously, underdog film, the low budget, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

The forerunner awards had given a good indication that Slumdog Millionaire was a film that was just a bit ‘Special’. It has already grossed £90 million in Box Office takings.

Slumdog Millionaire was up for 10 Awards, including: Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Original Score; It took 8 of them.

Directed by Danny Boyle, (28 Day’s Later), Slumdog Millionaire is a low budget film with a meaningful premise. Set on the streets of Mumbai the film portrays the struggle and the darker side of Indian life.

This is no Bollywood movie with a feel good theme of singing and dancing. Slumdog is gritty and telling, set in a city that is overrun with poverty and crime.

With beggars who are maimed, or self maim, to make the most of themselves as a money making commodity. The less limbs, the more sympathy incurred; the more money to be made from begging. With huge, highly organised rings of beggars, this is big business in India.

The child extras who appeared in the film were hand picked from the tin roof shacks on the narrow streets of Mumbai’s crowded slums. Child labour is sadly rife and healthcare, virtually non-existent.

The films title was misinterpreted by a faction of the slum dwellers. They thought the film was making light of their ordeal and way of life. They felt the term ’SlumDog’ to be insulting to a community that works their fingers to the bone just to survive.

About 65 million Indians live in poverty and Slumdog Millionaire makes a good job of portraying the squalor and overcrowding, set in contrast against the beauty of an Indian backdrop.

I actually got to see the film eventually, last week and I was immediately struck with its dark beauty. The musical score blew me away. It was stunning and highly charged and captured the pace and feel of India’s impoverished belt, bringing it straight to our doors.

The film won 8 Awards including: Best Picture: Director - Original Score – Cinematography – Film Editing – Original Song – Sound Mixing – Adapted Screenplay –

There were celebrations on the streets of Mumbai where the people are now claiming Slumdog Millionaire as an Indian victory of film making.

Marketed as ‘The feel good film of the decade’, Slumdog Millionaire is the story of a poor young man who wins India’s version of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’.

The ‘Rags to Riches’ story has been criticised by some, for not reflecting the true plight of the poor inhabitants of urban India.

It is regarded by the Director as his ‘Best Work’, and in parts it echoes another of his commanding films, ‘Trainspotting’.

Other awards were for, Best Actress which Kate Winslet won for her standout performance in ‘The Reader’ in which she portrays a former Nazi concentration camp guard.

The Best Actor award was picked up by Sean Penn for his role in the film ‘Milk’, beating Mickey Rourke’s brilliant performance in ‘The Wrestler’, and Bradd Pitt in ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’.

Pelepope Cruz won the award for Best Supporting Actress, for her part in the Woody Allen film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Heath Ledger, deceased, won a posthumous Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for his fantastic, character portrayal of ‘The Joker’ in The Batman Movie – The Dark Knight.

Heath Ledger had been nominated before for an Oscar in 2005 for his portrayal of a homosexual cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain” but sadly did not win on that occasion.

This years winning award was designated to Ledgers 3 year old daughter, Matilda and the Oscar will be put in trust until she reaches her 18th birthday.

Heath Ledger died at the age of 28 from an accidental prescription drug overdose, five months before the release of The Dark Knight; stunning, and robbing the acting world of a truly great potential. -