Slumdog Mllionaire

 Slumdog Millionaire

The movie Slumdog Millionaire participates in gendered discourses that use women to represent a class of people and represent men as the actors that liberate that class. The movie represents women as people who sit and wait for other people to change the world and the men are represented are the ones actually out doing the actions, they are the ones working to liberate the class. Throughout the movie the main female character, Latika, does nothing unless instructed to by a man. She stands out in the pouring rain as a small child until she is allowed to come inside the tunnel, and as a young woman she is forced into a relationship with an older powerful gangster, but doesn’t do anything. She doesn’t even try to leave until she is instructed to do so by Jamal, the main male role of the movie. Salim, Jamal’s brother, takes a stand for good a few times in the movie. He took a stand to get his brother out of trouble and he took a stand to kill the man that would keep his brother and Latika from being happy. Jamal is the one who saves the day, he wins all of the money on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and he is the one who triggers all of the actions of the others. Then you have Jamal who rises up from poverty and acts as a liberator to show that you can get out of the slums of India. This love story intertwines many stereotypes Latika could represent the lower class who are trapped by society in grueling conditions, where they can’t afford school and the living conditions are intolerable.

My Opinion: 

The first time I watched this movie I was absolutely shocked about the conditions and horrors that these children were experiencing. Yet it is the truth, even if the life paths that the characters took is one of what seems like on bad thing after another. I was really surprised with the discussion in class about the poverty tourism that is growing in countries like India and I can't help but think that movies like Slumdog Millionaire promote this type of thing. It would be different if the tourism actually put money into the community but what we have been discussing is that the money goes into building apartments that can only house 1/4 of the people that live in these locations. People are loosing homes and are being just pushed aside. Another thing that bothered me with this movie is the gender roles. For a modern movie it is almost expected to have a pretty strong female role but this movie is simply not the case. She is tossed around as a child and then she ends up with an old mob leader. Instead of leaving and escaping, or better yet not getting into that situation in the first place she has to wait for the male characters in her life to let her go. The males make all the decisions and the actions throughout the entire movie and the main female character Latika does nothing but get tossed around and objectized into an object for affection. 

Fairy Tales and Happy Endings: 

This movie ends on a fairly unrealistic note. Not only does Jamal get the girl, but he also wins all of the money. Yes the entire story is about how he actually knew the answers to the questions but when it came to the last question he used his last life line and then guessed. When he called Latika of course she didn't know the answer, but by her answering it renewed the hope that she had seen him on T.V. and that she had finally managed to escape and hey could be together. This is a classical "Happy Ending" that is seen in many Fairy tales. The boy gets the girl and they get to live together rich and happily ever after. It is also a classics rags to riches like Aladdin where the street rat grows in society and  marries the Sultans daughter. This happy ending is almost a cliche for this movie that is so realistic and traumatic  Why wouldn't the movie end on a realistic note? I guess it is meant to be a glimmer of hope for people.                                                                               
                                       


I found an amazing research article that discusses gender, fairy tale endings and globalization in Slumdog Millionaire! This goes perfectly with everything I have been saying :) 

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14746689.2011.569072#preview