Much of the critical and popular controversy surrounding the 2009 fi lm Slumdog Millionaire is derived from misconceptions over the representational possibilities of popular fi lm, as well as the overwhelming national framework of fi lm criticism. By locating the ways in which the dystopic aesthetic of Danny Boyle's earlier fi lm, Trainspotting, is energised when it meets the Mumbai slum, this essay argues that Slumdog explores the role of informal knowledge in the navigation of changing urban landscapes. In this way, it is not despite, but through, the fi lm's refusal of realist generic conventions that it offers its interpretation of the city.
