slumdog

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 2014)

Merghani Elboshra
Plot Summary
Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man named Jamal Malik from Mumbai, India whose challenges and life lessons he has undergone have helped him gain the right amount of knowledge which came come to his benefit when he goes on the show, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire!" As the show progresses, he is only a question away from winning the grand prize of 20 million Indian rupees. The question was to be saved for another day after the show. Unfortunately, he is suspected of cheating on the questions and is arrested immediately outside of the television studio. He is tortured, electrocuted, and physically assaulted until he confesses that he was cheating(the torture was to force him into confessing about something he did not do); from that point on, the story goes on to show flash backs of his life experiences and scenarios which ironically gave him the knowledge relating to the questions on the show.
World Religion
This movie in itself describes the type of issues that are faced by many individuals who fall into the lower part of the caste system within Indian society. Jamal is an individual who was born into poverty and inhabited the slums of India with his mother and his brother, Salim. Individuals who lived in such conditions are referred to as Dalits or the untouchables. Since Jamal and his family were Muslims, they were not prohibited from the consumption of meat such as beef and chicken. The Hindu caste system tends to categorize individuals who do participate in the consumption of such flesh as untouchables because of the fact that such consumption is looked down upon in Hindu beliefs and principles. Jamal and his family also lived in the slums and usually individuals born in such conditions and who are also born in this social class is believed by Hindu society to not have the ability to move up within the caste system. They are viewed as people who are incapable of achieving the same amount of prominence and success as people higher up within the caste system. The untouchables, being of poor economic influence, also lack access to higher level education systems. Therefore Jamal's success within the game show and his ability to make it so far to the point in which he is only one question away from winning the big prize seemed unbelievable and incited great amounts of suspicion among the officials and law enforcement. They felt that a person of that low of the class should not possess such factual knowledge; therefore they stereotyped him and arrested him and also suspected him of cheating. Overall, the issues faced by Jamal were a based on of his place of birth and economic status. His ability to defy the caste system made it an issue for Hindu society. They felt that the only way for him to succeed was if he was cheating.