Slumdog Millionaire (Literantado’s Film Review)

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Detail

Director: Danny Boyle
Co-Director (India): Loveleen Tandan
Producer: Christian Colson
Written by: Simon Beaufoy

Cast:

Dev Patel as Jamal Malik
Freida Pinto as Latika/Cherry
Madhur Mittal as Older Salim
Tanay Chheda as Middle Jamal
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as Youngest Jamal
Azharuddin Ismail as Youngest Salim
Rubina Ali as Youngest Latika
Anil Kapoor as Prem Kumar
Irrfan Khan as Police Inspector

Running time: 120 minutes/2 hours
Language: English and Hindi

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Synopsis

Jamal Malik, was born in a slum, India. A call center assistant, an assistant serving tea for all call center agents just won a 20,000,000 rupees, a double millionaire from WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE (Kaun Banega Crorepati, title for Indian version). Who would have thought, an “uneducated” boy can win a double-million answer portion? The boy Jamal just answers it as if he was never question extensively.

All of his answers came from his life’s experience. This is a life’s experience revolving from his poor life in a slum, death of her mother, being use by a syndicate, a search for his first love – Latika, a disappointment to his brother, working in a call center, suspected cheating and ends winning as a double-millionaire in a TV game show.

Note: The film is an adaptation of the novel “Q & A” by Vikas Swarup:

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Commentary, Opinion, and Conclusion

The film shows a typical scenario of being a judgmental to lower brackets of the society. In the film, you’ll see a publicly exposed mockery, in part where the host of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire/Crorepati gives a prank joke to the contestant, a slumdog. Maybe that’s a part of his job being a host of the program.

The film also got an overwhelming awards and critics from known ones (Google it). What attracts to my eyes is the title or the new form word “SLUMDOG” which makes up the film famed and controversial. Actually, some Indian conservatists protested and file a lawsuit because of the title and of what of it.

What is Slumdog by the way?

Slumdog

– A slum dweller.
– A person who lives in a poor makeshift locality in extremely dirty conditions like a stray dog.
– A person who lives in an overcrowded and poor area of a city in which the housing is unplanned.

The definition of the slumdog has some sort of similarity to the definition of “squatter”.

Squatter

– An individual who chooses to live either on the streets or where ever she/he is at the moment. These people are often travellers (drifters); hippies who know that even though it is sometimes slightly uncomfortable you may live in America without paying taxes and other advantages that are deemed natural; punks or even political refugees.

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Well, slumdog or squatter, it’s a matter of how you know it and what it is like a Slumdog after watching the film. (Squatter Millionaire? A Philippine version)

After analyzing a brief life in India, shown in Slumdog Millionaire, children in a slum or also called a slumdog or chai wallah in Hindi, depite of their younger age does know how to strive for survival. The film depicts a real picture of poverty not only in India but might be in some 3rd world countries.

If you’ve watched this film, you’ll know “Life is like a game”, play it like a Snake & Ladder board game – you’re lucky when you’re up, and when you’re down, you are as if you were bitten by a snake.

–
Otakore Literantadodist, Literantado

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1. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slumdog_Millionaire)
2. IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/)
3. Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/)