Slumdog Millionaire (My Reactions to Other Reviews)

According to New York Times Review, the film is "a modern fairy tale about a pauper angling to become a prince". Similarly, according to Roger Ebert from Chicago's Sun-Times, the film is "a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating at the same time, about a Mumbai orphan who rises from rags to riches on the strength of his lively intelligence." I agree with both of these statements because Jamal was a poor orphan who ended up a Millionaire by his pursuit to reunite with his "destiny" as he calls it.

There is something that attracks me to Ebert's review of the film. He talks alot about the film's universal appeal and how it "present the real India to millions of moviegoers for the first time." Before seeing the movie, I never thought India was as poluted and choatic as it is in the film. I always thought of India as a beautiful country with fascinating traditions and celebrations like in the movie, Bride and Prejudice. However, in Slumdog Millionaire, you see overcrowded towns without houses but thousands of huts, dirty children playing in dirty water, women beating clothes in rocks and water to clean it and so on.
I remember, however, towards the end of the film, Salim and Jamal were sitting at the top of a building looking at the city of which they have grown as a child. They commented on how much the place has changed due to the Industrial revolution that happened in India. Everything looks neat and organized unlike the place they had grown to know.

One interesting thing that I probably would have never guessed about the actor who played Jamal in the film is that, based on the background info from the NYT review, he is British. To me, he looked pure Indian and he spoke well like one. It's also interesting that the actors who played young Jamal and teenage Jamal were Indian actors and the adult Jamal is a British actor. Ummm...

Sources:
Dargis, Manohla. "Orphan’s Lifeline Out of Hell Could Be a Game Show in Mumbai." Movie Review - Slumdog Millionaire 2008. New York Times. 12 Nov. 2008. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Ebert, Roger. "Slumdog Millionaire." Slumdog Millionaire: rogerebert.com. Chicago Sun-Times. 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Slumdog Millionaire (My Review)

From the beginning of this film, I knew that it was another Twilight movie. I don't mean it in the sense that it is a vampire movie, I mean it as in 'the movie is not as good as the book.' All the good details and events from the book was taken away and replaced with a whole new scenario. Characters were added and even more were removed. The name of the main character, for goodness, was even changed. The setting seems completely different from what I visualized from reading the book. Even the ending of the story was changed because of all of its replacements in the plot. Needless to say, I like the book much better. However, unlike Twilight, I actually somewhat liked the remake of the novel into a film.

The major difference between Q & A and Slumdog Millionaire is the motivation of Ram (or Jamal as he is called in the movie) for participating in the quiz show. In the novel, he participates in the quiz show to get revenge at the host for abusing the most important women in his life, but in the film, he participates in the quiz show to find his lover, his destiny. To me, the film was more of a love story. In contrast, the novel, to me, was more of a thriller. Don't get me wrong though, the film is really good in some sense (especially the ending), but if you have just finished the novel and were looking for the film to reflect exactly what happened in the novel (like I did), then you're in for a surprise.

Anyways, I have to give the film some credit for its camera shots. In the beginning of the movie where Jamal and Salim (brothers, unlike in the book) were running away from the police, the director did a tracking shot and many camera whips to show the excitement, chaos, and fear the characters were experiencing. Throughout the movie, there were many close-ups to show the character's reactions and/or feelings. I liked that. There were also many establishing shots thoughout the movie to show India's various sceneries. The one camera shot I like the most was towards the end. The director did a bird eye's view when Jamal was looking at Latika's (his lover's) beautiful face at the train station. Her hair was softly flying, and the lightening in the background was bright making her stand out more. Adding on to the effect, the scene was going in slow motion. I just thought that was wonderful.

Nonetheless, I would recommend reading the novel and watching the film. They are both wonderful stories, regardless of their differences.

Q & A (211-318)

Summary
This novel had the most beautiful and inspiring ending ever... Well, to me it did.
Most of the remaining stories of Ram's journey took place in Agra. But first, he made a stop at Juhu, where he worked for an actress known to be the Tragedy Queen who became a mother to Ram. Her real name was Neelima Kumari and through her, Ram learned a whole new world about actresses when they are not in front of the movie camera. He learned that they are obsessed about always looking beautiful because they have gotten so used to seeing themselves in makeup that it makes them uncomfortable to see themselves with their natural looks. Particularly with Neelima, he learned that she is also obsessed with feeling and looking young and that is why her room is full of antiaging cremes, soap, and whatnot. She told him that she wanted to die looking young like Marilyn Monroe and not surprisingly, she did. After Neelima's mother died, she had been seeing a cryptic man that Ram found out abuses her. At first, she was cool with it and told Ram that she enjoys the pain. But once she decides to leave the man, she was brutally hurt all over her body by him. Soon after, with the help of Ram, she puts on her most expensive sari, jewerly and dolls up her face. Then she throws out her anti-aging things and sits in front of her TV and watches her most successful movie with her trophy for best actress in her hands. It was there that she killed herself. It was there that Ram lost his first motherly figure of his life.

Right after, we are taken to Agra, the place that changed Ram's life forever. There, he met and lived in an outhouse with a little boy with speech defect named Shankar, worked illegally as a tour guide for the Taj Mahal, and lost his virginity to a prostitute who he soon fell in love with. He discovered many secrets hidden within the people he encountered. For example, he learned that Shankar's mom was Swapna Devi, the owner of the place of which they lived and was abandoned to live as a poor orphan in the outhouse with the other tenants because Shankar accidentaly found out about her affair with his uncle when he was just 6 years old. Swapna Devi never forgive him and disowned him as her son. Even when Shankar died of Rabbi, she did not care one bit..
The prostitute that Ram fell in love with is named Nita. She was forced into this proffesion by her mother because of her beauty so she could provide for the family. Her very own brother was her pimp and organized who got to hook up with her in the brhotel. When Ram asked for her freedom so he could marry her, he demanded 400,000 ruppees that Ram did not have. Nita was later brutally abused by a cryptic guy just like Neelima had been for resisting to have sex with him because she was in love with Ram.

The big suprise isn't until the end when we, the readers, find out that Ram hadn't participated in the show for a billion ruppees but instead for revenge. The founder of the show, Prem Kumar, is the cryptic guy that had abused Neelima and Nita and Ram was set out to kill him with the gun he hid inside his jacket during the show. However, in exchange for his life, Prem gives Ram the answer to the last question for the billion ruppee prize.

At the end, we learn that the lawyer that rescued Ram from prison and was defending that he had not cheated on the quiz was Gudiya, the "sister" that Ram had saved from being abused by her father. Also, after being found innocent of cheating, Ram uses his quiz show prize to buy Nita's freedom from her pimp brother and marries her. He also set up a shelter for orphan kids and hires Salim, his long lost bestfriend, to be the lead actor of his movie (but Salim doesn't know that it is him). Interestingly, Prem Kumar commits suicide two months before, and four months after Ram's arrest.

Quote
"Shankar finally dies at twelve forty-seven a.m. Just before dying, he has another lucid moment. He holds my hand and utters a single word, "Raju." Then he clutches his blue notebook and cries, "Mummy, Mummy," and then he closes his eyes forever" (Swarup 285).

Analysis
I almost teared up at this quote. It is really sad and sweet. Ram (or Raju) has become like a guardian angel to Shankar and he has watched him die before his eyes. What's even sadning is that Shankar died without with his mother's forgiveness or care. She knew he was dying but she did not care and thought it was best if he did die. All his wanted though, was her forgiveness... For her returned love. He did not get any of that and died knowing his mother did not care less about him. His last words where "Mummy, Mummy" which adds on to the bitterness of the situation.