SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

                                                                     

 

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Worksheet A

Fill in the gaps to complete the text.

The film Slumdog Millionaire, which (1) _ _ _ e out at the beginning of this year, has had big (2) au _ _ ences in cinemas in many different countries. On 22^nd February it (3) w _ _  eight Oscars including ‘Best Film’, and for its English director Danny Boyle, ‘Best Director’.

The film (4) te _ _ _  the (5) _ _ _ ry of two brothers growing up in a very large slum in the biggest city in India, Mumbai. They are very (6) _ _ or and have no one to look (7) _ _ _ er them after their mother is killed. The film starts quite close to the end of the story, where we see Jamal, the younger of the two brothers, in a Mumbai police station. He is about eighteen years old. We learn that the police have (8) _ rr _ st _ _  him because he is (9) ta _ _ _ g   p _ _ t in the popular TV quiz show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’, and some people think he is cheating. He has already given the right answers to lots of questions and now has the (10) ch _ _ ce to win a

(11) _ uge amount of money. But where has someone from a slum (some of the characters in the film (12) u _ k _ nd _ y call him a ‘slumdog’), who has not had much of an (13) e _ u _ _ _ ion got such knowledge from? The film then goes back in time and shows that Jamal knows the answers because of things that happened to him, his brother Salim and a girl called Latika in the past.

Bad things happen in the story and there is quite a lot of (14) _ _ _ lence, but there is also (15) hum _ _ r and most people would probably say it is a feel-good film. The (16) e _ d _ n _ is very exciting, but this isn’t the place to say what happens – you’ll have to go and see the film yourself!

One of the things that helps Slumdog Millionaire seem (17) r _ _ _ ist _ c is the fact that a few of the young actors are themselves from Mumbai slums. Television

(18) n _ w _ programmes (19) sh _ _ ed how happy the young actors were to be at the Oscars in Los Angeles, and how excited some people in Mumbai were when they arrived back (20) h _ _ e after the film did so well.

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 Worksheet b

THE BACK STORY: Complete the article with these words

before    despite    education   offensive    part    director    including    based     view    claim

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 film by British ………….., Danny Boyle. Simon Beaufoy’s screenplay was ..…………. on the novel Q&A, written by Indian writer and diplomat, Vikas Swarup. Boyle auditioned many young Indian actors for the ..………… of Jamal as a young man, but he finally chose Dev Patel, a young British Asian actor. Freida Pinto, who plays Latika when she is a young woman, was an Indian model who had never appeared in a film ..……………. . Set and filmed in India, the film won eight Academy Awards (Oscars) ………………. Best Picture and Best Director. ……………………….. this success, the film received some criticism. In India, some people felt that the film perpetuated a stereotypical ………………… of life in Indian cities. Some critics felt that the word ‘slumdog’ was …………………….. . Some British newspapers reported that the child actors, were poorly paid for their work on the film. In response to this ………………., the filmmakers explained that they had set up trust funds for the child actors and made provisions for their …………………….. .

SYNOPSIS: Complete the synopsis of the film with these words:

dying    for    mother    kills   reunited    story    begging    home    interrogated    correctly     hope    called     well    threatens    escape 

A young Indian man, Jamal, is being ……………………… in a police cell by an inspector who wants to learn how a ‘slumdog’ from the streets of Mumbai did so …………… on a TV quiz. In a flashback, we see Jamal going onto Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. Each question reminds Jamal of his life …………, and this helps him to answer the question ……………….. In this way, we see Jamal’s life story in a series of flashbacks prompted by the questions. After their ………… is killed in antiMuslim rioting, Jamal and Salim befriend a young orphaned girl, Latika. The three live by foraging in the city’s dumps, until a man ..……….. Maman takes them to his orphanage. Maman’s real intention is to make the children earn him money by .……………... .Salim and Jamal escape, but Latika is unable to follow. After years away from Mumbai, Jamal persuades Salim to return to look ……….. Latika. As they free her, Salim shoots and .…………. Maman. However, Jamal is not reunited with Latika for long; Salim is enlisted by a local crime boss, Javed, and Salim ………………….. Jamal with a gun, sending him away. When Jamal finds Salim years later, he finds that Salim is still working for Javed. Latika has become the crime boss’s ‘girlfriend’ – a prisoner in his luxurious .……….. We learn that Jamal has come onto to the quiz in the .…………. that Latika will be watching TV, and will see him. After he is cleared of the charge of cheating, he faces the final question. Latika does see him on the show, and Salim helps her .…………… from Javed and his men, killing Javed and ……………. himself. Jamal answers the final question correctly and he and Latika are ………………..

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