The film, Slumdog Millionaire is an exciting and breathtaking story of an orphaned boy (Jamal) in Mumbai who uses his impeccable intelligence and strength to rise from rags to riches. The events of Jamal’s life are narrated in the movie through flash-forwards and flashbacks. Set in the slum, the movie uses lighting to cut back Jamal’s memory that recounts his past to the audience. Organized into 19 scenes, the film showcases a rich production and fascinating story. The Indian culture and Bollywood convention style are achieved in the movie through color grading and editing. This paper will explore the themes of real and escapist life of the movie characters against its cinematography.
To enhance the miserable conditions that the brothers experienced while growing up, the movie has employed low-key lighting. For instance, the desperation and poverty levels of Jamal’s community are depicted in golden filters. The skin and faces of the movie characters reflect lights that illustrate dirty complexions and humidity. Dramatic scenes are accompanied by amplified music and an increase in sound volume.
The audience is further captured by the drum beats to resonate with their heartbeats to increase intensity and pace. The character changes of the main characters convey time as boys transition to young men (Beggs, 2018). The music rhythm changes into a non-diegetic one after the lives of the boys change for the best. In other parts of the movie, diegetic music sounds are used in stressed and chaotic situations such as crying and screaming, car hooting, and madness in the streets.
Right from the very start of the film when Jamal enters an interrogation room, there is the use of smash cuts to introduce the themes of real-life and escapist life. The differences between these two lives are accentuated by sharp contrasts. Alongside the numerous close-up shots in the interrogation room, there are also red palates and strong orange. This is an illustration that the room represents the hard and painful real life. The close-ups used to depict the pain therein (Krstić, 2016). On the other hand, a nice blue palate blended with medium to wide shots represents the escapist world. Therefore, color changes in the interrogation room create the differences between the two worlds. The conspicuous medium to wide shots shows how the escapism life is removed from the real emotion.
When the police inspector enters the room, he ignores Jamal’s pleas for help and instead tortures him. The cinematography in this scene is jumbled and characterized by tilted angles. The interrogation is a real-world, depiction of how crazy and muddled life is in its true meaning as opposed to the escapism stability. The reality of life is further illustrated in the next scene when police chase Jamal and his friends after they were found playing Cricket on a property owned by the government. The chase exposes the audience to the slums’ vastness and chaotic nature. The theme is further enhanced by the “O…Saya” song that plays in the entire scene. In the song, the artist shares his vision of becoming a star, living a good life, and traveling around the world to forget his sorrows. Indeed, the lyrics of this song communicate the escapism theme.
When Jamal attends the Millionaire show, he is asked to name the star of the Zanjeer film, a 1973 production. The produces again introduce color motifs through the orange and red palate. When Amitabh Bachan appears with a helicopter, Salim locks up his brother Jamal to prevent him from accessing the millionaire since Jamal cost him a client. Here, Salim has been portrayed as a mean individual who places a lot of value on money. However, Jamal risks all including jumping over a pile of feces to escape from meeting Bachan. Indeed, this society is deeply engrossed in an escapist lifestyle (Tzanelli, 2016). Interestingly, Jamal relies on his street smart to scale through the Millionaire show, something that cannot happen in real life.
The third question of the show is about the Rama god. The audience is taken back to when Jamal and Salim lost their mother in a religious attack within the slum. While escaping from the scene, the two brothers meet a little girl donning the deity’s outfit painted blue. Again, this is an illustration of the escapism world as portrayed in the film. However, the scene is interrupted by the real world that is characterized by police corruption as they later sit back to watch the terrific scenes that unfold.
When Jamal and Salim finally escape from the slum, they are accompanied by a girl known as Latika. Later a man shows up to rescue them from a makeshift shelter they were squeezed into to avoid the rain. The good Samaritan offers them food, drinks, and shelter. They are taken to a children’s home where Salim is made to perfect other children (Slumdog Millionaire, n.d). This plays into his desire always wanting to be controlling and boss over others.
However, this is an escapist world as the real character of the man was revealed later when the trio realizes that he uses the children for his selfish gains. The man blinds the children as a way of turning them into beggars. The children are sent out into the streets to beg others for money, which is all surrendered to the supposed good Samaritan. Incidentally, this is what the real-world entails. Corrupt, morally inept characters often masquerade as generous individuals who are ready to help only to realize later that they do not have the best interest of the victims at heart.
Jamal is represented in the movie as having a soft spot for women while Salim is a hardcore street boy who is only interested in chasing money. There are several shots in the movie where he is shown counting money against the “Paperplanes” song lyrics as Jamal dreams of lovely moments with Latika. When the boys turn up at the legendary Taj Mahal, the story shifts from realism to escapism. They now speak the English language in place of their native Hindi (Armitage, 2020). Jamal becomes a fake tour guide while Salim resort to stealing shoes. Jamal ends up scamming an American couple a $100.
Jamal later forces Salim to accompany him back to Mumbai in search of Latika, a shift to the real world. While in Mumbai, Jamal runs into one of the children their rescuer had earlier blinded and finds out from him that Latika works as a prostitute on one of the streets. The colors change to orange and red, depicting the real world (Wilkinson, 2021). When Jamal and Salim set out to search for Latika, they found her in a club dancing with a client and wearing a blue dress. The brothel where she operates is hard and untidy. Whereas she is trying to fake life, reality does not stop staring at her.
In conclusion, the movie, Slumdog Millionaire attempts to contrast two themes; real life vs escapist life. The characters are trying through all means to escape from their miserable situations. However, they are caught up in a web of circumstances that expose them to the realities that characterize their lives. Society can be hard and harsh on its citizens and force them to do things that they might not like.
References
Armitage, H. (2020). Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack: Every song in the movie. Screen Rant. Web.
Beggs, S. (2018). 10 Winning facts about Slumdog Millionaire. Mental Floss. Web.
Krstić, I. (2016). Slums on screen: World cinema and the planet of slums. Edinburgh University Press.
Slumdog Millionaire. (n.d). Plugged In. Web.
Tzanelli, R. (2016). Mobility, modernity and the slum: The real and virtual journeys of Slumdog Millionaire. Environment & Urbanization. Web.
Wilkinson, A. (2021). Netflix’s the white tiger takes on Slumdog Millionaire, but it doesn’t stop there. Vox. Web.