Jamal and Latika

                                                 Slumdog Millionaire is about two main characters that live their lives in the slums of India, particularly Mumbai, India. They struggle throughout their childhoods but find ways to survive. Jamal has a hard childhood because his mother is killed right in front of him and his older brother Salim. A little girl they meet named Latika, lost her family and follows them. Salim doesn't like the idea at first but lets her come. They meet an Indian gangster and he gives them a home and food if they collect money for him. The boys escape one day but Latika doesn't make it. "Jamal and Salim end up as fake tour guides at the Taj Mahal befriending the other slum children of Mumbai and selling stolen shoes from the Taj Mahal."(Wikipedia-Jamal).Eventually, the two brothers become seperated and they grow up alone. Jamal works at a call center and looks up his brother. He finds him, calls him and they meet up. Latika ends up being forcefully married to one of Salim's bosses. She waits on him hand and foot and doesn't have any sort of freedom. She loves Jamal and wants to run away with him but she knows there is nothing she can do. In the meantime, Jamal somehow gets selected to be the next contestant on the hit show, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". He ends up knowing all the answers to the questions but the host thinks something is up.  "Because he is a "Slumdog" the host of the show believes he is cheating and his belief is strengthened when he tries to feed Jamal a wrong answer and Jamal still gets it right." (Wikipedia-Jamal). On the last question, Jamal doesn't know the answer so he phones a friend. He calls his brother Salim's phone but Latika answers. She doesn't know the answer either and they are disconnected. Jamal guesses the answer and wins all the money but is upset because he has no idea where Latika is now. He goes to the train station to see if she is there and they finally meet up after all this time. Being a "slumdog" is a hard life but in the end it can wind up good.

                                          

Images:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Malik_(character)


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Backgrounds

Slumdog Millionaire is an adaptation of the book Q&A(2005) by and Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. It is based out of India and some cultural backgrounds include, their land and climate, population, religion, and different types of greetings. Some things they do in India are like what we do in America. They can greet each other with "hello" or "hi" but for more proper greetings, " In urban southern India, people may address men as Sar (a title stemming from the English Sir) women as Madam. It is polite to use titles such as Professor, Doctor, Mr., Shri (for men), Shreemati (married women), Kumari (unmarried women), or the suffix -ji with a last name to show respect. Indians usually ask permission before taking leave of others."(CultureGramsWorldEdition3). They also highly believe in their religion. Religions practiced in India are, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Hinduism is not really considered a religion so much as a way of life, but about 81 percent of Indians are Hindu and 41 percent speak Hindi. "About 13 percent of Indians are Muslim, who follow the teachings found in the Qur`an (Koran) regard Muhammad as the last messenger of Allah (God)." (CultureGramsWorldEdition3) Christianity is also practiced but only about 3 percent of people do.

Slumdog Millionaire's movie setting is in Mumbai, India in 2006. India covers 1,269,219 square miles which is roughly one-third of the United States. "Most of the country experiences three basic seasons: hot (March-May), rainy (June-October), and cool (November-February)." (CultureGramsWorldEdition1). The temperatures are great there! They hardly go below 40 degrees in January and reach above 100 in the summer. A few bad things are floods, droughts, and earthquakes are common there.

Being in the Top 10 list of biggest countries around the world, India is sure to have a huge population. They come in second place next to China. India's population stands at around 1.2 billion today. With all the people, India is ethnically diverse and the country has hundreds of languages. 33 languages have more than 100,000 people each speaking them and 22 have official status(CultureGramsWorldEdition2).



Source:
http://ezp.tccd.edu:2146/pdf/world_pdf.php?id=75
Image:
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Settings

(Image by Kounosu.)
Slumdog Millionaire was filmed in the Dharavi slum of Mumbai, India. "Dharavi is known as one of Asia's largest slums - about a million people live here, packed into an area that is less than one square mile. Somewhere around 50 percent of Mumbai's population lives in a slum like this one - and while there are the stories of struggling you might expect - there are also ones that might surprise you."(BBC) The slums are what people these days think of as the ghetto or like a run-down neighborhood. The housing isn't really that good, the food isn't a big supply and people are really lucky if they have cable TV, something we take for granted here in America. The slums are definitely not the best living conditions to say the least. But the housing is cheap. "Rents here can be as low as 185 rupees ($4/£2.20) per month. As Dharavi is located between Mumbai's two main suburban rail lines, most people find it convenient for work."(BBC) People in these slums have to search for jobs for what seems like forever and they don't get paid nearly anything compared to us. If the rent is $4 per month, think about what they make in a year or per hour to get just that much! "Two-thirds of India's population lives on less than $2 a day." (CBS) Think about that for a minute, "$2 a day", I'm thinking, how can that even be possible?? If we were to take a trip over to India, we would seem like billionaires! All in all, I am happy to live in America where we have so many opportunities to live a good life, make money and be happy. I'm not saying the people in India don't have those things, but I'm sure it would be a culture shocker to come over here and experience this for a change.


Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/16/eveningnews/main4804798.shtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/world/06/dharavi_slum/html/dharavi_slum_intro.stm

The Beginning

Slumdog Millionaire is about an 18 year old orphan who is chosen to play on the hit tv show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He knows all the answers to the questions and nobody knows how. Nobody has ever done it before so the host thinks he is cheating so he gets arrested and questioned. The movie is based on the questions he is asked, and flashbacks of his life are the answers. The title itself interested me because I had no idea what a "slumdog" was and more I got to know about it, the more curious I was so I chose it. Once I saw the first ten minutes of the film, I was hooked. The children living on the street, not having a home, family, food or money to survive just took me back. I watched and wondered what that feels like, people in America would have no idea how to handle that but the kids in the movie make it look so easy and natural to them. It's a really sad story but it is a very good movie at the same time.

Sources:
http://www.slamonline.com/online/blogs/omars-gangster-entertainment/2009/03/movie-review-slumdog-millionaire/