PLOT (http://www.foxsearchlight.com/slumdogmillionaire/)
Jamal Malik, a penniless eighteen year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, is one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” But when the show breaks for the night, suddenly, he is arrested on suspicion of cheating. After all, how could an uneducated street kid possibly know so much? Determined to get to the bottom of Jamal’s story, the jaded Police Inspector spends the night probing Jamal’s incredible past, from his riveting tales of the slums where he and his brother Salim survived by their wits to his hair-raising encounters with local gangs to his heartbreak over Latika, the unforgettable girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of Jamal’s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show’s seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out…
Character analysis (https://jonnycats.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/character-analysis-slumdog-millionaire/)
Jamal Malik: Protagonist. Hero. Babe. Jamal is the youngest of two brothers who grew up in the slums of India. We follow his story from rags to riches in a life filled with fights for love, family, and survival. Regardless of his years on the streets, Jamal is a gentle soul with a kind, but ultimately brave heart. One of the main motivating forces in his life is his love for childhood sweetheart Latika. Forever the hero, Jamal believes with all his heart that he can save Latika from her circumstances.
https://deterfalidet.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/character-analysis-jamal-from-slumdog-millionaire/
The movie Slumdog Millionaire is about an Indian boy, Jamal, who is from the Slum. He competes in the game show, who wants to be a millionaire? He will now play for 20 million rupees, more than any other person ever competing on the show. There is no doubt that he has been cheating and there is no doubt that someone from the slum cannot know the answers to so many questions and win more money than any other person with an education. That is what they believe, and we see scenes from his childhood and from the game show, and from his time at the police station being in for questioning, to prove that he has been cheating.
I would call Jamal a round character with some development. Jamal starts as a little boy, growing up in the slum, together with his brother Salim. One day they lose their mother, and they are now on their own. Jamal’s purpose of life changes the day they meet little Latika sitting in the rain. Already in this scene we can see, and get to know the soft side of Jamal. While his brother doesn’t want to let her sleep under the roof with them, Jamal says she can. From this day on Jamal is in love, and all his future choices are made to get Latika.
Because of the nonlinear structure of the film, we get to know Jamal in different ages and situations, and he is developing and we get to see him acting differently in different situations. This also shows the contrasts between his childhood and where he is now, and between how he is being threatened in the police station and how he is winning money in the game show.
For example, when he is in the hot seat at the show, we no longer see the little boy from the slum, but we see an independent boy being separate from his slum-life. He has now grown from being a poor little no one, to become a self-confident boy winning a lot of money and having become a familiar face to the whole country.
And then, it is important to mention the “it is written” scene. He is given the answer by the host, but still answers something else because of his mistrust to him. This is the point where the whole story changes, where Jamal’s future changes, because he doesn’t believe that his future is written. What will happen is in the hands of his answer, he will continue being a slumdog or he will be starting a life being rich and famous. Even thought his past made him a slumdog, it doesn’t mean that he has to be it for the rest of his life. His life wasn’t written like everyone seemed to believe, he had the possibility to make a change.
A lot of his development I will see is because of his childhood. He has seen his mother being brutally murdered because of religious differences, he was almost exploited by a rich man and he’s been searching for the love of his life. All his bad experiences have made him wiser and the answers to the questions are his experiences, and he competes in this show basically because he thinks Latika will watch him. There is no doubt that Jamal is a determined and sincere boy, showing us that life experience sometimes may be more important than book’s knowledge and that a life being given isn’t predetermined.
Helpful sources:
Pandalous “Cinema Room” : Last visited 21.01.2010 :http://www.pandalous.com/reader#p=–slumdog_millionaire_is–
Helium “Movie analysis: The hero’s journey in Slumdog Millionaire” :http://www.helium.com/items/1359321-analyzing-slumdog-millionaire-using-joseph-campbells-idea-of-the-heros-journey
Salim Malik: Jamal’s older brother. Years on the streets have made him hard, but family still comes first. Salim is one of those Antagonist turned Protagonist turned AntProgonists that add depth to a storyline.
Latika: Latika is the tragically beautiful childhood companion of the Malik brothers, Jamal’s true love. He spends about 99% of the film obsessing over her, so she’s worth paying attention to. Although her childhood was cut short when Salim (remember him? AntProgonist?) dragged her into a world of prostitutes and gangsterism, there is a kindness and a vulnerability in her that remains untouched.
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