"Slumdog Millionaire", by Simon Beaufoy, British film 2008, directed by Danny Boyle.
The Guardian, 16 January 2009, Stuart Jeffries, 'I'm the luckiest novelist in the World',
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/16/danny-boyle-india
Movies at MSN, May 3, 2011, Slumdog Millionaire: Overview, by Jason Buchanan, Rovi, Movihttp://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/slumdog-millionaire/
IMOb, The Internet Movie Database, May 2, 2011, Slumdog Millionaire 2008, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/
Yahoo Movies, April 17, 2011, Slumdog Millionaire, http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809956055/details
Wikipedia, April 25, 2011, Slumdog Millionaire, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slumdog_Millionaire
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Theme
The main theme of the movie is about Jamal searching for Latika, the love of his life. The reason that he is a contestant in "Who want to be a Millionaire" is because he knows that Latika watchs the show. He has no idea where she is and how to find her. She has been sold, as a slave, to a rich gangster by his brother Salim. When she tried to escape, to meet up with Jamal at the train station, just when they had laid eyes on one another, she was snatched by the gangsters. Jamal knowing, that she had made a decision to be with him, was enough to motivate him to find her by any means. The means brought him to a very unlikely place, which was a contestant in the show. The host, not understanding how a poor, uneducated young man could know all the answers, turns him over to the police. The host believes that he must be cheating and therefore gets very angry. Jamal, after being tortured by the police, explains every event from his life that brought about him knowing the answers. The police finally release him. He goes back to the show where he has that last question to answer.
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Monday, May 2, 2011
Examination of the time period/cultural background
The time period is modern day India. The movie starts out with a question. The question is in the form of a trivia: Jamal is one question away from winning 20 repees.
How did he do it?
A. He cheated
B. He is lucky.
C. He is a genius
D. It is his destiny
At the end of the movie the correct answer is given, D. It is his destiny. The definition of destiny is;
des·ti·ny (d
s
t
-n
)
st-n) n. pl. des·ti·nies
1. The inevitable or necessary fate to which a particular person or thing is destined; one's lot.
2. A predetermined course of events considered as something beyond human power or control:
3. The power or agency thought to predetermine events: Destiny brought them together
Traditional Indian cultural and thinking on "destiny" plays an important part in the movie. All the events that have brought Jamal to the climax of the movie, which is being a contestant on "Who wants to be a Millionaire", are based on that Jamal and Latika are destined to be together. Jamal knows this from an early age. His brother and he refer to themselves as the two musketeers. Jamal acknowledges that Latika is the third musketeer. The last trivia question that Jamal is presented with, to win all the money, is "What is the name of the third Musketeer?" He learned the name of the first two musketeers, but never learned the name of the third. So he has one last life-line and it is a phone call. The call is made. It so happens that Latika has his brother's phone and she answers. Neither of them know the answer, but she tells him which one to choose, and of course, it is the correct answer.
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