Slumdog Millionaire

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In the final scenes right before Jamal’s last round on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”, reports are publicized on him and we again return to the question of “Did Jamal Malik, an uneducated 18 year old boy from the slums of Mumbai, win one crore by fair means or foul play?” Despite these accusations, the people of India stand by him in full support, gathering together to watch the show’s final round. This shows that the Indian masses identify with Jamal’s character and dream of his success—they are all hoping for the possibility that a local slumdog will make it big by winning the game show. I think what this says about the Western gaze is that they believe that Indians see success as something that comes in a Western form because “success” here is tied to winning the game show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”, which is a Western franchise. The West believes that they are the holders of “success”, therefore making them superior to the impoverished Indians, again exoticizing them by way of contrasting wealth in the West and in India.

During the final round of the game show, Jamal reveals that in an unexpected turn of events, he actually does not know the answer to the winning question. However, he still wants to continue playing because he believes that “it is written”; his fate has already been decided for him anyway. This again points to the concept of destiny that is very popular in Bollywood, which is a far cry from Western rationality. Indians place much importance on things like destiny, love and romance, while the West has a more rational and logical view of the world.

In the end, Jamal wins the final round despite not knowing the answer and is reunited with Latika, simply because “it is written”. Through his flashbacks, we see how he knew all the answers to the questions because of his many difficult experiences in life, which showcase how hard and different life in India can be from the civilized West. I think that although Jamal succeeded in winning the game show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”, the main point was that he knew the answers not because he was educated, but because he’s been through a lot of hardships. These exotic experiences and hardships in Jamal’s life are used to portray “India as a third-world spectacle” (Diluca, 2012), in stark contrast to norms of the West.

The film “Slumdog Millionaire” certainly gave us a good look at the “real India”, not holding back on showing the negative aspects of life in the slums and the realities of living in a third world country. I think it’s good that a Hollywood production tried to make an effort to make these harsh realities of life in third world countries known to more people, but in doing so, it also further alienated and exoticized its subjects. I think that there’s no single right way in doing something like this, so I will just applaud their effort and hope that they were able to get their message across.

Sources:

Akbar S. Ahmed. “Bombay Films: The Cinema as Metaphor for Indian Society and Politics”. Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2. Cambridge University Press. May 1992. Journal. Nov 2015.

Amandeep Takhar, Pauline Maclaran and Lorna Stevens. “Bollywood Cinema’s Global Reach: Consuming the ‘Diasporic Consciousness’”. Journal of Macromarketing. Sage Publications. May 2012. Journal. Nov 2015.

Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan. “Slumdog Millionaire”. 2008. Movie. Nov 2015.

Gretel Diluca. “Slumdog Millionaire: A Bollywood Mask on Western Homogenisation”. University of Southern Queensland. Nov 2012. Web. Nov 2015. http://www.slideshare.net/greteldiluca/slumdog-millionaire-paper.

Laurel Mei Turbin and Ashwini Hardikar. “Slumdog Millionaire. Films for the Feminist Classroom. Journal Issue 1.1. Spring 2009. Journal. Nov 2015.