Slumdog Millionaire

This week's movie was Slumdog Millionaire which a fantastic film. The cinematography on the film was quite moving such as the parts in which Jamal and Salim were young and initially introduced playing a game and starting running from authorities throughout the streets and neighborhood. With the camera in an subjective point of view, you feel yourself immersed in the action of running throughout the streets until they arrived in their mothers arm in trouble. The movie also does show other points of views in the film such as indirect-subjective point of view as when both Jamal and Salim were racing toward the train and Latika was being left behind we get a shot of Jamal's face showing disbelief and a sense of being lost, then anger. The director continues the film with a lot of panning providing the sense of the city being large and crowded. This did provide of a feeling that the city was a massive object with two tiny boys hovering around it. These are also referred too in the article by Christie Davie "Wagging the Slumdog" where people of India were afraid the portrayal of the city in the film is seen as dirty and clustered. The director does provide a contrast in the film with people's clothing and objects throughout the film wearing or showing bright colors making the city very festive as are the people in the film. The film had some moments in which parts of the film was shot in the handheld camera format that allowed the audience a sense of being a part of the action. With the film being shot in a wide screen format, we were able to see density of the city population and vastness of how large the city is compare to the two young children being in the streets or as in the scene of the Taj Mahal. Being young and walking up towards the epicenter, you have a sense that this is bigger than life.

The story itself of how a young man coming from poverty and going on to win a game show contest, was close to how the young boys in the article "The Original Amazing Indian Reality Show" by Bobby Ghosh. In the article, two young men training for the military, get an opportunity by entering a baseball throwing contest and winning. The film giving us a timeline of events in which Jamal had experience the answers to questions presented on the game show was great in setting the scenes that were occurring. The setting of film was truly authentic to the Indian culture with shots of people washing clothes or material in river right before the persecution, or little children pan handling for money or the prostitution of women in a hotel located right off the streets. Overall the film did justice in my opinion to the sights and sounds of city and people of India.