SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

First, I love this movie.
The acting, cinematography, story, music, dance....I loved everything. I loved the co-themes of movement and destiny, drenched with irony, that run throughout the movie.

Movement is the opposite of stagnation or oppression, but it is always in the interest of the upper class to keep the poor where they are. Historically, the caste system of India has been particularly brutal in this regard, as class became mixed with religious beliefs.The class a person was born in was interpreted to be their destiny, and very difficult to leave. Modern India has made much more mobility possible. In the recent Indian elections, the incumbent party actually purchased the rights to the theme song of Slumdog Millionaire, "Jai Ho," or "Independence." The words "ja" or "jai" are used throughout the movie to indicate movement. However, this movie portrays the struggle a Chaiwalla must still endure, if he wants class mobility.

The movie's aim is to show that it is Jamal's destiny to win the Indian version of the game show, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" The events of his life provided the answers to the questions. Born in the slums, poor and Muslim, no one expected Jamal to get very far in the contest. As an adult, Jamal works as a Chaiwalla, one who serves tea to more socioeconomically advantaged people. He is humiliated for having the job as a Chaiwalla at the game show, and flashbacks show that he suffered much humiliation, due to poverty, throughout his life. He is tortured by the police, because the show's host thinks it impossible (by honest means) that the Chaiwalla knows the answers, while educated people never got beyond the first few questions. While underscoring that destiny is at work in the universe, instead of being destined for poverty, Jamal the Chaiwalla is destined to win this game show, which will free him from poverty, allow him to have a stable existence, and be with his childhood love.

The character Salim, Jamal's brother, is fascinating to me. Salim became a gangster at an early age, streetwise and tough. He says morning prayers, and then goes off to work as a gangster. He prays for forgiveness every morning before work, which involves injuring and sometimes killing people. At the end of the movie, he sacrificed his own life for his brother's happiness. Before dying from several gunshot wounds, he says with his last breath, "God is great." It was particularly poignant that he died with these words, as his own life was rife with violence and brutality.
Most interesting.