Slumdog Millionaire

            For the last week of class since we did not view a film in the classroom, I chose to watch Slumdog Millionaire. I had actually always wanted to see this movie, because when it first came out in 2008 I remember loving the previews and hearing that it was such a great movie. Although I felt the movie was not what I had originally expected, it ultimately was a great movie that did a terrific job of portraying a very true style of what the culture is like in India. It gave the audience of the film a very real sense of the poverty and starvation that is all too common in India, the power that the wealthy had over the poor and the danger that came from it, all while telling the remarkable story of Jamal, the main character of the film.

Personally, I felt the first few scenes of Slumdog Millionaire were very gruesome and a little difficult to watch. After the first initial few minutes, however, it became obvious that the scenes were necessary to set the tone for the audience. Looking back, I ended up feeling that being able to see the true struggles of poverty in India made the movie better, and it also added to the excitement when Jamal succeeded in winning the money at the end of the film, because the underdog was able to come out on top.

Although I have always known and even heard the saying “money is a dangerous thing,” and it has been the topics of movies before that I have seen, I was not aware before seeing Slumdog Millionaire that it was a theme in this particular film. However, it makes sense being that the culture overall in the film was so extremely poor and poverty-stricken, that those with the money would be able to gain the power and it would eventually become “a dangerous thing.” The struggle that Jamal went through while competing on India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? was simply because the people in charge of the show, those with the money in India, were afraid that he may actually have the capability to win, in which he did, and they did not want to lose only the money, but the power that came along with it. They ultimately went to extreme troubles to stop Jamal from being victorious in the popular game show, threatening and harming not only him along the way, but in the end he still was able to come out on top.

            The entire movie is obviously based upon the story of Jamal, a boy who grew up in the slums of India. The story in the film is told in present-day time, but it flashes back on the life and troubles Jamal went through in his past, which helps the audience be able to understand how he is able to come so far in playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. Also built into the film is the love story of Jamal and a girl whom he knew when he was younger, who he eventually declared his love for and she was the one who helped him when the game show in the end.