In this money-driven society where one pays to live, it is an ambition to provide for the basic needs. And dreaming to become a multi-millionaire is an irony. But you can’t afford to lose the opportunity if it comes your way just as a snap. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) himself never dreamed to play in such a game of wit that would accuse him of cheating and later make him a hero of out-of-nowhere hit Slumdog Millionaire. While it is a heated game for his spectators, he gets more apathetic about winning the biggest prize. But it is an interesting idea that his life in the past actually provides him all the answers to every question. Everything turned upside-down when the game becomes his way of making his greatest dream into reality. That is to find her long lost childhood true love, Latika.
Jamal Malik and his beloved Latika at their meeting place, the train station
The slums of Mumbai where he used to live reveals social realities that happen in many parts of the world. A place situating poverty and social injustices where no one wish to live alongside. Jamal’s childhood presents a piece of community characterized by exploitation of children, discrimination because of religion and beliefs, uneducation and hunger that continue to reside among the ballooning population of India. To wake up one day and getting into what he thought was heaven leads his way to meeting the woman who would later become a missing part of him. The railways play an important role in separation, survival and reunion. It is also what took him to the urban; learning to do dirty jobs in order to survive while discovering the value of friendship. This and his plight as a slum-boy would give him all the answers to winning the biggest prize of life!
Growing up without a family is maybe a part of his fate. But it is certainly not the end of everything. Having a friend who has become a part of his identity provides more than a sense of home. Though fate offers separate paths that each one has to take, it also has intersections that allow two people to meet up again. Jamal’s friendship with Samil whom he grew up with from slums to the dirty helms of the city kaleidoscopes a feeling of anger, hatred and selfishness. But most importantly, it speaks of love and true essence of brotherhood. The story is certainly not only about Jamal. It is also about his brother who was willing to risk his life so that the other may succeed in his quest for reunion with that woman whom he has been waiting for in the train station – the train that takes him to unveiling what is written.
The story is a reflection of hope for every person who lives in hardship and suffering. Those who have nothing at all but hold the greatest life experiences drawn out of struggles. Those who live in rural and urban poor; scrounging the garbage everyday in order to eat, families who have no shelter and can’t send their children to school, and people who continue to fight for their lands, seek for freedom and right to life. They who continue to fight for survival but see life in its deeper sense. They maybe poor but they have the best definition of happiness missed by people who live in comfort and luxury. By people who find their life’s meaning in earthly things and succumb to materialism. But never find contentment.
It depicts how much one can grow both cognitively and affectively from hardships and suffering. We owe our hopes and inspiration to those whose life is defined by continuous struggles and ordeal. They may not have the best of everything, but theirs is the greatest stories that challenge the history of mankind. Still they feel grateful because they have all the answers to discover the real richness of life. For life is meaningful only if made out of struggles.
at the crossroads... 