In Slumdog Millionare, Jamal Malik is being physically tortured and antagonizing interrogated because of the fact that some officals in India believe that he was cheating on the all famous show called “Who Wants to be a Millionare”. Throughout his interrogations, we witness many flashbacks on his life – stretching back from his childhood. The themes seen in this inspirational film include destiny, lives going full circle, and beating the odds.
Jamal Malik was born in extreme poverty in Inda. The government (police) were constantly present and violent riots were an unfortunate common occurrence. On one occasion, we witnessed one of Jamal’s flashbacks. This memory in particular involved some horrible Gestapo members causing havoc, death, and ultimate destruction on the streets. Jamal and his brother were playing with the local kids (as usual) as his mother and many other women were washing laundry in the common canal one day. We see a huge group of men come and rampage the city, killing many innocent people (including Jamal’s mother) along the way. Jamal and his brother Salim make a run for it- determined to escape and spare their lives. Luckly, they make it out of this mess and find shelter.
Further on in their adventures, Jamal and Salim were sleeping under a quick made tent, made of a simple sheet/blanket in the middle of a literal dump. Two men came along and offered the boys some coke. Oblivious of the danger that these strangers were, Jamal and Salim followed them, ultimately allowing them to kidnap them (perhaps there was something in the Coke that made them docile and compliant?). It wasn’t too long after this that the two meet their “third musketeer” (beautiful Latika). After facing many trials and tribulations, including one incident that involved the perverted men who took the Jamal, Salim and Latika (as well as many other orphaned children) “under their wing”, so to speak and made them sing a national anthem type song. These kids were tricked, thinking that if they had a nice voice, something good would happen to them- that they would gain something in return for singing. Unfortunately, the opposite occurred. One little boy was singing his heart out for these men, but sadly, his eyes were burned away and he wound up blind. Jamal and Salim were lucky enough to escape from this treachery, but Latika was left behind (since she could not make it onto the moving train the brothers managed to escape on).
With the song “Paper Planes” in the background, we see Jamal and Salim grow up while riding atop of speeding trains and stealing their way to survival (acting as tourists, using ropes to take food out of train windows, etc). In accident that happened as they were trying to steal bread caused their travelling to be put on halt, and from there Jamal went searching for his lost friend and ultimate true love Latika. The beautiful girl was found, learning how to belly dance so that she could sell her body to any man who wanted her. Jamal and Salim come to the scene, and we see the trend of slumming, bargaining, and violence all in the process of Salim’s escape from the whore house she was living in. Destiny and life coming full circle are two key themes in this film because each character truly did find their destinies in a way. Jamal got his girl in the end and Salim (who dedicated his life to stealing and cheating his way through things) died in a literal pool of blood and money that he stole from other people. Jamal beat the odds that were against him in his life by winning the "Who wants to be a Millionaire" game and becoming a television celebrity.
No comments:
Post a Comment