Slumdog's Characters - would Latika be your Phone a Friend?

Despite winning eight Oscars and being nominated for over 100 other awards, despite taking 377 million dollars at the box office and despite making many of us want to dance around the living room and screw in imaginary lightbulbs at the end of the film - Slumdog Millionaire wasn't universally liked.

Mind the gap between past & present.

Forget the 'Poverty Porn' accusations and the fact that it's a very conventional Romantic Drama dressed up in non-linear plotting, one of the most frequent arguments was that it was impossible to warm to the characters. Some critics claim that whilst the three young actors in the roles of Latika, Salim and Jamal as children were endearing and sympathetic it was hard to care about the same three in adulthood.


Was this due to lack of screen time, too much jumping around in the story or even wooden performances?

I'm asking the audience...