Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

This paper is about the movie Slumdog Millonaire, and about the meaning of happiness in the movie. I am going to write about one of the three main characters: Salim Malik, and what he did, and because of what he did this. Also I am (of course) going to write about the movie itself. I honestly think that this paper could be a kind of  a personal review of mine, because I am going to write about MY opinion of happiness and MY opinion of the movie. The movie has a deep philosophical meaning which is what is interesting to write about, and the symbols that are ‘hidden’ in the movie are also have a meaning, which gives the movie also more of a philosophical meaning. Those symbols can be seen from my personal point of view, and I am also going to discuss, and write about those symbols in my point of view.

Chapter 1: The movie

The movie; Slumdog Millionaire is about two brothers who started living in the slums. Jamal and Salim Malik. One of them ends up becoming a millionaire-Jamal Malik.The movie starts in the studio of the show: ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ And Jamal was participating, he knew all answers, and the producers of the show found this very suspicious, so they started abusing  Jamal physically, but then Jamal starts telling his life story, and how he knew all the answers. Jamal and Salim’s mother gets killed in a conflict between Muslims, and Hindi’s. Ever since they have been travelling like ‘Homeless kids’ through India. They met a girl: Latika they travelled with her, but after a while Jamal, Salim and Latika were captured by a  man; Maman and he was the leader of a gang that used homeless children as beggars to earn money. Salim saw a boy’s eyes being burned out by the gang, and they wanted to do the same with Jamal, but Salim warned Jamal and Latika, and they flew, Salim and Jamal got on the train, but Latika wasn’t fast enough, so the gang recaptured her. Jamal couldn’t stop thinking about Latika, and after a few years of living everywhere, Jamal and Salim had decided to go and look for Latika. They found her, she was still captured by Maman. Maman had fed her up to become a prostitute, because Maman expects to earn a lot of money for Latika’s virginity. When Jamal and Salim found out about this, Salim killed Maman. After this incident Salim decides to join another gangster who hated Maman named Javed. Salim orders Jamal to leave him and Latika alone, and he draws a gun on him. Jamal leaves. Years later, Jamal works as a; ‘Tea boy’ in a call centre, he searches the call centre’s database and he finds Salim’s phone number. Salim and Jamal reunite, and Jamal finds out Latika lives with Javed (Salim’s boss gangster). Jamal also reunites with Latika and he tells her, that he will wait every day at 5 o’ clock at the station, until Latika shows up. She showed up, but she got captured by Javed’s men. Jamal loses contact with Latika, but he knows she often watches the tv show ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire.’  Jamal tried to make contact with her by becoming a contestant on the show. He got it till’ the last question. Latika escaped thanks to Salim who gave her his car and phone. Jamal didn’t know the answer of the last question, so he called the only phone number he knew: Salim’s, Latika ended up taking the call. Javed was very mad at Salim when he found out about him releasing Latika. Salim fills a bathtub with cash and sits in it, waiting for the death he knows will come when Javed discovers what he has done. Javed and his men enter the bathroom, and Salim shoots Javed. The other men therefore shoot him, and in his last breath Salim gasps: ‘God is great.’ In Arabic. The movie ends with (of course) an Indian song and dance, and Jamal kissing Latika.

Do you need money to be happy?                                                                                 

 Well, to my opinion you it depends on the person, and the circumstances. In the beginning of the movie you see Jamal and Salim being happy as kids, but they didn’t have a lot of money. After their mother died, they were of course not as happy as before, because they didn’t feel beloved. Other things also depend the level of happiness, because after their mother died, they probably would have been happier if they had some money, or if they had someone to take care of them. This wasn’t the case, so this explains why they weren’t that happy. I’m not sure whether you need money to be happy, you can be happy without it, if you have something else to replace the money like for instance love. I think this is quite a difficult question to answer, and that it is better not to answer it directly, but to talk about it with other people.

Is love a necessary  condition of happiness?                                                                     

Yes, love does make people happy. You also see in the movie that when Jamal wins the money, the money isn’t what made him happy, but being with Latika did. So yes, love is a necessary  condition of happiness. People can of course say: ‘I’m a billionaire, I have 5 wives blablabla.’ But if those 5 wives don’t love him, I’m sure he’s still not really happy. People need people around them to care about them and to love them for who they are.

Can you be happy if you’re poor? 

This is a difficult one, because if you’re not used to being rich, and you don’t know what it feels like, you’re just used to being poor, and you will be happy. Let’s go back to the billionaire with 5 wives. Would he be happy if he was poor and those wives didn’t love him really? NO. But, would he be happy if he was poor, but those wives really loved him? YES. So again, you can be happy if you’re poor, but then you need something or someone to make you happy. And as well in the movie. Jamal and Salim were happy as kids, because they had a loving and caring mother to replace the money.