Slumdog Millionaire

“Slumdog Millionaire” certainly isn’t a typical love story. It unfolds in a very captivating fashion. The director, Danny Boyle, uses the poverty, crowded conditions, crime, and religious unrest of India to set the stage for this movie. Critics of the movie might think he over dramatized the conditions. I think his intention was to make his audience really feel strong emotions for Jamal, Salim and Latika, as well as the rest of the poor population of India. Emotions range from pity, sadness, depression, anger, to hope and happiness. Although I was aware that India is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, I didn’t really comprehend the poverty that existed. Once the main characters were orphaned as young children, they had to fight to stay alive. The director uses an interesting approach to tell the story by using the game show’s questions to relive all of Jamal’s memories of growing up and all the challenges he faced in the process. Another interesting approach was the way the director uses camera angles. There were a lot of aerial shots to show roof tops of the city, the train system, the narrow streets, and crowds of people. This helped illustrate the over populated living conditions. He also uses a lot of close-ups of the faces of his characters to draw on the strong emotions they were feeling. Just because of Jamal’s status in society, the police automatically thought he cheated. After Jamal goes through their interrogation and the police finally believe him and let him go back to finish the game show, the sense of triumph is so great at this time. To me, it was as though he had already won in the game of life, not just the game show. Another significant scene is when Salim helps Latika escape to be with Jamal. Prior to this, Salim had always protected his little brother, Jamal, then he betrayed him. Now, he was redeeming himself. I thought there was some symbolism when Salim filled the bathtub with money knowing that he probably was going to be killed for helping Latika escape. He then climbed into the bathtub with his gun in hand waiting for the others to storm in and shoot him. To me, it was “blood money” to show that the way these criminals earned it was corrupt. In the Time magazine article, “Slumdog to Top Dog”, Boyle says, "Slumdog is just a hybrid of the words underdog and slum. Some people found it insulting, when actually it's a triumph for a kid from that background and a vindication of his resilience." I would agree that this is a very appropriate title for the movie. At the end, Jamal totally has many different classes of people supporting him from the studio audience, the game show technicians, and people in the streets, all sharing in his success and triumph.