A Review Of Slumdog Millionaire Film Studies Essay

Dubbed the feel good film of the decade, “Slumdog Millionaire” is the film to see. Excitement, tragedy, love and hate it’s all featured together. The film starts by showing the poverty in India. The way that it does this is in a humorous but serious way and therefore still getting the point across. The film then goes onto show how the poor and rich are living together; side by side and how there is a large divide between classes. Two Brothers Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) and Salim Malik (Mahur Mittal) are taken in by a villain who forces the children to beg so that he makes money. They escape from this villain leaving behind them there friend Latika (Freida Pinto). After living rough the brothers manage to find Latika but they then become separated. Jamal ends up working in a call centre as a tea boy and this is how he locates his brother. He then knows that if he gets onto “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” Latika will see him. Working at the call centre is then his gateway to “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”.

The way that Jamal gets onto “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” shows how the caste system has been undermined in the film. Because Jamal grew up in the slums there should be no way that he could get a job at the call centre. Even though he had the lowest job there was, serving tea to people this was still even higher that his status in the caste system. If the caste system had not been undermined he would not have got onto “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”

Before watching the film my assumptions of India were that it was a very loud, vibrant and colourful country and this was shown to be true but what I did not expect to see was how poor the country actually is. There are people living everywhere in third world conditions especially in the slums that make up a large part of India. The biggest shock was that there are very rich people living right next door to slums.

The film was based on the book “Slumdog Millionaire” wrote by Vikas Swarup. The Director of the film is Danny Boyle who also directed “Train spotting” and “Millions”. The total cost to produce the film was 15.1 million dollars which was lower than the total budget of 20 million dollars. The film was released on 31 October 2008 at the London film festival it was then released to the rest of the public on 9th January 2009. All of the film was filmed and based in India.

The main thing that I learnt about India is that it is a land of huge contrasts and for everything good thing that happens there is something bad going on not too far away. There are beautiful buildings such as the Taj Mahal but if you walk for a couple of minutes you will find yourself in the slums that fill up any gap of land that has nothing in it. This really showed me that my assumptions about India were so far from the truth. I mean I knew there were poor people but did not expect there to be as many slums as there is and I certainly did not expect them to be as vast as they are.

Even though India is beautiful, there will be something that is brutal going on not too far away. For example, in the film the children are made blind so that when they are sent onto the streets to beg they make more money. This scene in the film makes people cringe and also feel mad that this is going on. But the people in India see this all the time and to them it is there way of life and they can’t help the children as they need to concentrate on keeping themselves alive.

There is a scene in the film where Jamal had taken an American family for a tour of the area near the Taj Mahal and when they return to the car it has been stripped of its wheels and everything in the car that had any value has been taken. Immediately Jamal gets accused by a local Indian man of planning this and he only took them on the tour as a diversion. The man starts to beat Jamal up but much to the man’s surprise the American family stops this and gives Jamal some money and check that he is all right. This is an example of the way that the poorest people always get the blame. Also the American family believes that money will sort everything out and make everything better just like that. This is because the American family are quite ignorant to the situation and do not understand how bad the poverty is.

I believe the target audience for the film is everybody that likes something that is easy watching and basically the type of people that watch “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and other game shows. I also think people that enjoy films with a lot of tension and make them think would also enjoy the film. Young adults are more likely to watch the film but it would be just as suitable for the older audience.

My favourite part of the film is at the start where the children are being chased through the slums by the police officers as it really shows you what the slums are like straight away. Even though this scene gives a very good insight into the slums it is definitely not boring. It makes you sit on the edge of your seat hoping that the children are not caught as it really illustrates how the people do not have any rights as if the police caught the children they would beat them up and there would be no limit on how much force could be used.

Another scene that makes you sit on the edge of your sit is when Jamal is at the train station waiting for Latika and when she turns up you can see how much they love each other. Then Salim, Jamal’s brother turns up to stop Latika from escaping with Jamal and takes her back to her “owner”. This scene really shows how money means everything to people in India as Salim even betrayed his own brother just so he could become rich. This is another example of what I like about the film, it is very educational and shows us the real India but it never gets boring or makes you want to stop watching.

Normally in a film you would just get to see part of somebody’s life over a few week or days. This is where “Slumdog Millionaire” is different it shows all of Jamal’s life. The way that this is done is by showing flash backs throughout the interrogation when the police believe Jamal must have been cheating as not even doctors could win this much money. This is very effective as it shows the audience what it is like growing up in India rather than just what it is like to live there.

Music has been used very effectively in the film to really make the audience feel involved. In scenes where tension is being built up for example when the police are chasing the children through the slums the music is very fast but has lots of bass to it so that you feel the sound and it is almost like a fast heartbeat.

Sound has also been used very effectively in the scene where Jamal uses “phone a friend” as Latika’s mobile is ringing but she is far away from it. As she runs towards it the film keeps switching between Jamal, Latika and the mobile, every time it goes to the phone we hear the ring tone again. This is very effective in making the audience hope that Latika gets to the phone in time and really makes the audiences hairs stand on end.

Something that I did not like about the film was that it didn’t really show that money good things in India. Even though it tried to show the contrast between the good aspects and the bad it mainly concentrated on the bad which could be seen as a bad thing. In a way I see the film as an advert telling people not to go to India and that it is not a safe place.

Filming in the slums would normally be a great challenge as people would swarm around the crew if they thought there would be a chance of meeting an actor or famous person. It is also very awkward to manoeuvre the camera equipment through the narrow streets that make up the slums. The way that the crew of Slumdog got around this issue was by using small semi-professional digital cameras that were a fraction of the size of the normal size professional film cameras. This made the scenes that were filmed in the slums natural as we got to see what people would normally be doing as they were not distracted by the film crew.

The chase right at the start of the film through the slums is a great example of how the camera work was really effective in the film. This is because the way this scene was filmed was as if the camera was one of the children being chased so when watching the film it was as if you were one of the characters in the film. The part of this scene that was most effective when being filmed in this way was when the children jumped from the roof and the camera jumped with them.

Jamal is obviously the main character in the film as the whole film is about his life. Jamal is very important in the film as he illustrates to us how people that are from the slums are expected to get nowhere in life. It is a massive shock to everyone when he wins as much money as he does as even the most educated people never win this much money. From the minute he sets eyes on Latika he falls in love with her and it is like the scene in “Romeo and Juliet” where they first meet. The audience are supposed to see that he is the good guy compared to his brother and that he will do anything to keep Latika safe.

India’s “Chris Tarrant” Prem Kapur (Anil Kapoor) is also a character that plays a large role in the film as he is the host of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” This is obviously the main thing in the film as it is what everything is based around but I think he is an important character as well. I think this because he is the person that calls the police believing Jamal must be cheating. This really illustrates to the audience how nobody trusts anyone that comes from the slums. He is also very mad at the end of the film as before Jamal he was the only person that has won that much money before. The way that he gets mad shows us how important status is to people in India. Now he cannot say that he was the only person to win that much money, his status has been lowered. What makes it even worse is that it was by somebody from the slums which if the caste system was being followed he should not have been on the show to start with.

In conclusion I think the film is a must see. It gives a powerful insight into India. The film does not spare any detail and shows nearly every aspect of Indian culture from both the rich and the poor. The reason that the film is advertised as a feel good film is because it gives you a warming feeling at the end of the film showing that there is hope for children in the slums. Throughout the film our assumptions of India are challenged and this seems to make the audience feel educated by the film and also not believe what they are seeing and in a way gives us a wakeup call into the harsh reality of the way some people live. I would give Slumdog millionaire ten out of ten.