Photo above by Humayunn N A Peerzaada
Slumdog Millionaire, a film just nominated this week for 10 Oscars, is about more than a quiz show; it’s a journey through India that raises existential questions about fate and chance.
At the core of Slumdog Millionaire is the question: Have our lives already been written before us, or do we ultimately influence our destiny? The answers to the question unfold against a vibrant and colorful, but often raw geographical and human landscape in which India is as much a character as the protagonist, Jamal.
At last week’s Golden Globes, director Danny Boyle (whose past work includes The Beach , a polarizing film amongst travelers), picked up the best drama and best director awards for his tale of Indian slum dweller Jamal Malik, who finds himself one question away from winning the TV quiz show, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”
Photo above by babasteve
But before possibly walking away with the prize money, the nation’s hearts, and even the love of his life, Jamal has to endure torture at the hands of Mumbai’s brutal police, who believe he cheated at the game. The suspicious inspector asks, “How could a slumdog know the answers to those questions?”
The answer: Destiny.
“I knew I’d find you in the end. It’s our destiny.”
Under interrogation, Jamal tells the inspector his incredible life story. None of the young boy’s experiences from childhood to this moment, sitting handcuffed in a chair, are of his own doing. In fact, all Jamal ever did was simply survive as life propelled him from one life threatening or life affirming experience to the next. As we come to realise, though, there was greater meaning to it all.
Underlying the story of Jamal’s life are questions that affect us all: Are our lives really mapped out for us? Does everything happen for a reason? Surely our lives aren’t pre-determined; we shape them through our decisions. Choice, not chance…right?
These are questions with particular resonance for travelers, who know that the momentary decision to go one way or the other will change one’s journey– and even one’s life–and nothing is likely to be the same again. We can’t leave such meaningful decisions to the heavens; we’re in control. Or are we?
Photo above by Meanest Indian
A Nation of Apparent Contradictions
You’ll ponder these questions throughout Jamal’s story, but the real subtext of this film is India. Danny Boyle’s visceral film-making drops you right into the streets. Filming hand-held, guerrilla style, on location, Boyle conveys the the beauty and extremes of India–from dilapidated Mumbai shantytowns and endless garbage-strewn landfills to exhilarating train journeys and colorful mass riverside laundrettes– in an intimate way.
‘You don’t take [Mumbai] for granted, ” Boyle said in an interview promoting the film. “You know nothing about how it assaults your senses. For a dynamic film-maker like myself, it’s everything I could ever want.”
That “everything” includes characters. By setting Jamal and his narrative among the country’s lowlifes, degenerates, innocents, and angels, Boyle ensures that Jamal’s experiences shock and inspire viewers in equal measure.
“I think one of the reasons the film seems to work for people is that it is very extreme,” Boyle said. “That’s what they have there. You’ve got to portray it as an extreme experience. Everything is full-on.”
“It’s a tough place! There’s a lot of poor people living there leading very tough lives. You’ve got portray that accurately. There are beggars who have been crippled deliberately to make them better beggars. You’ve got to get your head around that.”
“You get it rougher in India at the moment,” concluded Boyle, Empire. “….[I]t allows you to tell a story like this.”
Photo above by AshuGarg
Final Answer?
Beyond raising questions of destiny and beautifully portraying Mumbai’s darker side, “Slumdog Millionaire” is also likely to help travelers reflect on their own experiences of India.
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16 Comments... join the discussion!
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I was a bit worried when I went to go watch it because of all the HYPE surrounding the film. Let me just say, every word of praise is justified. Those who haven't watched this movie should. Those who have know.
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Every single person I know who has seen this movie raved about it.
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It's based on an amazing book that lacked the love story aspect of the movie..which becomes apparent once the love story starts to become so forced in the later part of the movie. This movie was great up until about halfway through.
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Forced? Oh man, I thought the love story was the whole point. I loved the whole thing. Give in to the hype, folks! It's a lovely film.
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I love this film too. I thought The Telegraph summed it up perfectly as http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/4224827/Slum...target=”_blank”>the first film of the Obama era.
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I love this film. I thought The Telegraph summed it up nicely with the headline "Slumdog Millionaire: the first film of the Obama era".
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This is a film that is on my "must see" list…I may read the book first before I see the movie…
Who knows if our lives are pre-determined? Some people believe our lives are mapped out by us before we are born into this world. However, we have the power to make "adjustments" along the way….Makes for an interesting discussion…
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National Geographic has a 5-part short video on the radical changes in India happening as a result of the Golden Quadrilateral, a hugely ambitious highway project linking the four major cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai, which is bringing industrialization, vital jobs, and higher standard of living for some, and dislocation and loss of farmland for others:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/player#/?...
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I just saw this last night….its was very very good.
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If you like to swim in a pit of human waste, you probably appreciate this movie. This movie is nothing but a poverty porn, very sadistic and unrealistic beyond imagination.
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I truly fail to see what Obama has to do with the effectiveness of the movie – just another attempt to portray "The One", Obama, as having some sort of transformational effect on mankind. Ridiculous. The movie speaks for itself and stands on its own – and no one should inject their politics into it like the Telegraph obviously did.
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I think our lives are predetermined. In my life I have always had dreams of the big events before they happened-the dreams are sometimes somewhat cryptic but very accurate. I watched slumdog millionaire and found it very very memorable-somewhat extreme & unrealistic but memorable.
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I found Slumdog millionaire a fascinating film. For me it is about both predestination and the choices that we make in life. Both brothers faced the same situations, but the older brother chose to live in self-preservation whereas Jamal chose to still be compassionate and think of others, he kept his humanity in the face of severe cruelty and betrayal. The older brother payed the price whereas Jamal reaped the fulfillment of his dreams. The fact that the answer to each of the questions came out of the suffering in his life and accumulated to the moment when he became a millionaire, is for me about moving from survival into fulfillment. Even if it is unrealistic, it is still about triumph over adversity, and that even when life has not turned out the way we would have wanted it to, we do not have to become bitter, selfish and twisted about it, but can still love and care.
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I think that I can tell a story to describe what destiny is.
A person, after finishing his daily work in the paddy field, is returning home in his bullock cart. He has drunk a lot and just keeps on hitting the bull that has been tied to the right side of the cart. A boy is watching this and he asks his dad; "Dad why on this earth is that person hitting the bull ?". Father replies, "Because he is in a drunken state". "Okay, dad, but why is he hitting just that particular bull?" to which father replies "It is because he is so heavily drunk so much so that he cant lean to his left to hit the other bull and the stick is on his right hand". Now the boy asks the million dollar question "How come dad, the bull that is getting hit, happens to be exactly on the right side of the cart? " "That is its fate, son" replies dad and then the boy asks "What do you mean by fate?" Dad says "I will explain to you my son; at the time of preparing the cart, that man could have easily tied the bull that is now on the right side , to the left side and viceversa, but; actually it is done in such a way that the bull that is getting hit is exactly tied to the side where the man is comfortable in hitting and look the stick also happens to be in his right hand; this is what fate and destiny is all about my son. Believers call it that way and non-believers call it co-incidence, but, call it whatever you want both are exactly the same.
Gokul Kenath from Vengody, Palakkad, Kerala, India.
Mobile number is +919496294144↵ -
The movie was great… the book’s better. Seriously, if you enjoyed the movie, read the book. The storylines are almost completely different, and the book is so well written. One of my favourite novels of late
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