Slumdog Millionaire: Idea and Execution - Essay Example

Humanities Reaction Paper Introduction This paper shall be a reaction paper on the movie “Slumdog Millionaire.” This paper shall first describe thedifferent elements – the acting, the directing, and the other technical elements of the movie. It shall then interpret and analyze the political and social context of the movie as well as its aesthetic elements. This paper shall thoroughly assess how effective the movie is in delivering the deeper and the more profound message of the film. The analysis shall be based on this student’s personal assessment of the movie, partly supported by the analysis of other critics and other movie experts. Discussion Background The drama/romance movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire was directed by Danny Boyle and co-directed by Loveleen Tandan in India. It mainly stars newcomer British actor Dev Patel, playing the title role of Jamal Malik, and another relative newcomer Freida Pinto playing Jamal’s love interest, Latika. The supporting cast in this movie includes Anil Kapoor playing the host of the game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’; Irrfan Khan, the police inspector who interrogates Jamal for allegedly cheating on the game show; Madhur Mittal who plays Salim, Jamal’s brother; Ankur Vikal, the gangster who takes Jamal and Salim after their mother’s death and trains them as pickpockets; and Indian child actors Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Rubina Ali, and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail who respectively play the younger versions of Jamal, Salim, and Latika. This movie started filming in November of 2007 all over India, mostly Mumbai. It was then released in North America in November of 2008. The movie tells the story of Jamal Malik, a contestant on the Indian version of the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” who, to the surprise of the viewers, of the show’s host, and the show’s producers, continually gives the correct answers to the show’s questions. Before the million dollar question was called out, Jamal was arrested by the authorities for allegedly cheating on the game show. The main logic of the authorities in arresting Jamal seemingly revolves around the fact that Jamal comes from the slums of India and could not have known the answers to the questions unless he was cheating. During Jamal’s police interrogation, he narrates how he happened to know the answers to the questions because many of them relate to major events in his life. As the investigator asks him why he knew the answers to each question, he also narrates the events in his life which gave him the answers. He also narrates how his desire to find his childhood friend and the love of his life prompted him to join the contest. After a night of torture and interrogation, Jamal again returns to the show where he is asked the final question. As it turns out, he does not know the answer to the final question and so he calls in a ‘friend’ – his brother. Incidentally, his brother has given his phone to Latika after helping the latter escape from the gangster Javed. As fate would have it, Latika too does not know the answer to the question. Fortunately, Jamal still ends up correctly guessing the answer to the final question. He wins the show’s top prize to the delight of the audience and of India in general. After the show, he wanders quietly through an Indian train station where after years of being apart, and through a playful twist of fate, he is reunited with his childhood friend and sweetheart, Latika. The major characters in this story are the brothers Jamal and Salim, who come from the slums of India and are orphaned at a very young age. The story also features Latika, another orphan who was befriended by the brothers and with whom Jamal falls in love. It also features the host of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire,’ Prem Kumar who is decidedly bent against Jamal winning the show. The police investigator is yet another character in the story; he is determined to find out how Jamal is cheating on the show. In Jamal and Salim’s past, we encounter the gangster Maman who takes in the boys and many other young orphaned boys and girls – feeds them, clothes them, and uses them as pickpockets. Javed is Maman’s rival crime lord. Salim ends up working for him after killing Maman. Javed keeps Latika prisoner in the hopes of selling her as a prostitute. Javed later kills Salim when he finds out that Salim let Latika escape. The dialogue in this movie is English; a third of the movie is in Hindi, with subtitles. It is a casual and compelling dialogue mostly portraying the intensity of the drama and the trials of Jamal, Salim, and Latika as children, and later as young adults in the slums and streets of Mumbai, India. Such dialogue is maintained as the story progressed. In portraying the story, the principal segments of this movie include the arrest of Jamal followed by his torture and interrogation by the police officers; another segment includes Jamal’s childhood in India, and then his subsequent life as a pickpocket; another segment would be his life as a teenager in the streets of India; other segments include his quest in finding and rescuing Latika and later meeting up again with his brother; and then the final segment would be his joining the game show and answering the final question for the show correctly. The shots in this movie are taken in long, medium, and close-ups. Long shots showed panoramic views of India depicting an overall perspective of the life of the three orphans. Some medium close-up shots depicted a more intimate perspective of the characters and the drama which was unfolding in their lives. The close-up shots depicted the personal anguish and emotions each character was going through. It effectively depicted the personal and deeply emotional challenges for each character at different stages of their life. In order to portray the visually entertaining shots in this movie, the lighting for the movie was mostly in high to medium bright illumination. It was not stark and was not too weak to highlight the different activities of the characters. Where appropriate for the scene and for the characters, they were featured in a weaker or darker light. The dinginess of the different slum areas where the movie was shot were also not masked by darker lighting. In watching the movie, the necessary elements of India and life in India were unveiled by the lighting used in this movie. The power of the lights were especially felt when Jamal was competing in the game show; as an audience, it made us feel the pressure of people’s expectations on him and of the dilemma he found himself in. In order to capture the movie cinematically, the camera angles and camera movement used were appropriate for this movie. The camera angles were breathtaking and often in-your-face as they brought about images of poverty in India and of the dire circumstances many of its citizens face on a daily basis. The camera movement was in a smooth transition from one scene and one action to the next. The camera movement was dynamic based on the scene involved and was appropriate for the scenes being shot. The music of this movie was also appropriate for the theme and for the story being depicted. The soundtrack was distinctively Indian and oriental music. Music needed for the game show was also appropriate. Elements of the exotic, soft and Bollywood India music were heard throughout the movie. The direction for each scene was smooth and seamless. Each scene depicted the message it wanted to put across. The editing of this movie was also seamless and dramatic. The transitions applied by the editor fit the story-telling process and pace of the movie. Although no visual effects were used for this movie, the acting of the actors did not disappoint in animatedly and powerfully portraying the story and message of this movie. The leading man was especially effective in portraying the street child Jamal Malik. He effectively portrayed the angst and the years of suffering that Jamal went through to get to where he was at the end of the movie. The acting of Freida Pinto was not that extensive because she only appeared in the second half of the movie. Nevertheless, her moments in the movie were equally compelling. It showed her beauty, innocence, and grace as an actress and as a character in the movie. Noticeably, the acting skills and innocence of the supporting child actors in this movie were perfectly and effortlessly portrayed. The roles of the police interrogators and the game show host were also convincing and effortless. The almost perfect acting by the actors is largely credited to the perfect casting done for this movie. The political and social context for this movie shows an India which is suffering from so much poverty. We see the slums of India and Mumbai where people bathe in the muddy waters; where they relieve themselves in pit privies; where abandoned children are forced to work for their next meal. We also see how poverty drives so many children into the streets to fend for themselves and how they are trapped by gang lords who teach them to be pickpockets. We see the dire straits that children are driven to in order to survive. We also see the political unrest in India which causes many children to be orphaned. We also see how powerful the gang system is in India, how police authorities can hardly apprehend such gangs, and how many of these gang members come from miserable lives of poverty. The movie starkly presents all these facts and realities in an unforgiving manner. It captivates the audience and in the end, it prompts the viewer to root for the underdog, Jamal – to get the final answer right and to be reunited with Latika. This movie’s political context sought to illustrate the life of the poor communities in India and how the poverty in their lives affects their future. There is a good amount of stigmatization for Malik because of his slumdog status or street child uneducated status – that he is not expected to know the answers to the questions being posed. This story depicts the social battle between the underdog and the rest of society and how majority of the people would always root for the underdog. Interpretation and analysis The quality which makes the movie interesting is the fact that it showed the harsh realities of life in Mumbai. This has never been shown in film before. Where other movies would have downplayed the realities of life in the slums, the movie was unrelentingly honest. We see pit privies which would make even the most stalwart individual cringe in disgust; we see shootouts in the slums which indicate a political and social unrest that the rest of the world may later dismiss; and we see children abandoned and neglected by the government and by the rest of the world. The movie is interesting because of these depressing elements; however, the interest we engender for the movie is also directed to the beauty and the love that Jamal and Latika have developed for each other and how this love, in the end, has risen above the poverty and the desolation of their young lives. The movie exemplified the Indian Bollywood film style which featured a combination of the Hindi and English speaking elements. Some critics also declare that the movie has the masala-Bollywood film style because it mixes the genres of romance, comedy, drama, and action (Hayward, p. 59). In the movie we see a combination of these genres with the romance between Jamal and Latika, the comedic elements seen when Jamal and Salim were growing up; and the drama of Jamal’s struggles. The action elements were seen when they escaped Maman, when Salim and Jamal confronted each other after many years apart, and in the shootout which killed their mother. All these elements combined to form a cohesive and effectively engaging movie. These engaging elements also portray a message of hope. I believe that no matter how desolate and depressing our lives can be at any point in time, there will always be that silver lining which will eventually manifest itself for us in the future. I also believe that there is a higher purpose to the hardships and the cruelties that we may come to experience in our lives. And as long as we hold on to the hope of a better day, we can live our lives fully and we can rise above our tribulations. The story is also about doing everything we possibly can to fulfill our dreams – to go to whatever lengths necessary to fulfill our goals. Although the methods employed by Jamal and Salim in order to survive were less than morally or legally commendable, the movie shows the relentlessness of the characters. In the end, these are admirable qualities which every person, young or old should emulate. Opportunities to make our lives better should be created and taken advantage of; they should not be allowed to pass us by. When Jamal had a chance to have a better life away from the gangs, he grabbed that chance. When he was given the chance to find Latika, he again grabbed it. And in the end, such opportunities paid off. In looking into the aesthetic impact of the movie, we envision the positive feelings it creates in the audience, or its feel-good impact on the audience. The movie is depressing in its tragedy and its desolating images of poverty, violence, and trials. But its aesthetic impact on the viewer also dares us to “believe that in a world ravaged by poverty and violence, the power of love and the audacity of hope can still hold sway. Cinematically, it proves that you can take tired clichés, such as love-at-first-sight and rags-to-riches and make them fresh and thrilling” (Chen “Movie Review”). Its aesthetic impact lies in its beautiful and simple message of love and hope. This work is very interesting for me because of all the combined elements in this movie. The aesthetic elements, as well as the compelling action and dramatic sequences, and the engaging acting of the actors have made this movie very interesting for me. It has all the elements of a good story which is well portrayed and almost perfectly depicted. Moreover, the message of the story is very much relevant today. Many nations and many people live in poverty and in political unrest. And these hardships have caused many of children to live in desolation. But this desolation is but an obstacle which must be crossed in order to get to the bigger and better things in life. And with this story, we are given hope that amidst all the hardships in life, there is reason to hope for a better life and a better day. Conclusion This movie tells the rags-to-riches story of Jamal and his brother Salim who were forced to live their lives as orphans after the death of their mother. It tells the story of Jamal’s journey of searching for Latika, his friend and the love of his life. It tells of how he joined the game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ in the hopes of being seen by her. This story travels through Jamal’s childhood and adolescent life which was filled with hardships, and how these hardships gave him the answers to the questions in the game show. The story of hope and love is perfectly portrayed by the movie through the compelling acting skills of the actors and the seamless and almost flawless film-making skills of the director and the technical crew. The music, the editing, the photography and the dialogue of the story convincingly and relentlessly portrayed the life of Jamal, Salim, and Latika, from the time they were very young until their adult years. The wider context for this movie is about the choices we make for ourselves, and how these choices may, in the end, impact heavily on our future. It is a story of hope and of love and how these elements, when cherished and even combined may help us attain a better life. Works Cited Chen, D. “Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire.” Movie Review. 16 November 2006. Slashfilm. 29 March 2010 http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/11/16/movie-review-slumdog-millionaire/ Hayward, S. “Cinema studies: the key concepts.” p. 59. New York: Routledge Publishing Read More