Narrative Flow In Slumdog Millionaire
Story and Plot.
Story:
At the beginning of the film we see young version of Salim and Jamal Malik,two mischievous brothers, who live in the slums of Mumbai and it follows the story of how Jamal becomes a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? They are shown being chased through the slums by security guards as they were playing cricket on the airstrip. These two boys are then rescued by their mother and dropped off at school where they are learning about that Porthos and Arthos are two of the three musketeers. A famous actor arrives at the slums of Mumbai, the film star Amitabh who Jamal is quite fond of. However when he arrives Salim locks him in the toilet so he can’t get Amitabh’s autograph. Jamal manages to escape from the toilets out of the bottom, covered in excrement and receives Amitabh’s autograph on his picture of him just before he leaves. But later on Jamal is betrayed by Salim, as Salim sells the autograph picture, which then presents Salim as cruel.
Salim and Jamal’s mother is then killed by Hindu-nationalists during the Mumbai riots, as they begin to escape they experience an encounter with a child dressed as the god Rama with a bow and arrow in his right hand. Jamal and Salim then watch Mumbai burn shadowed by Latika. It begins to rain so Jamal and Salim find shelter, whilst Latika stands outside in the rain. Jamal then defies Salim to invite Latika into her shelter, which represents his purity. Jamal, Latika and Salim become a trio, the three of them are then found by Maman as he shows up in an ‘orphanage’ minibus and coerces the three to go with him. Raman tests the children’s singing abilities and also recruits Salim as his “dog” who will do his bidding. However when Salim witnesses him blinding a child he gets Jamal and Latika, and they escape from him. But as Salim and Jamal get on the train Salim deliberately fails to pull Latika on the train, which represents Salim’s selfishness.
Jamal and Salim are then shown travelling through India and the train, and hustling their way to survive on their own. Time has passed of the two surviving and travelling by train. They arrive at the Taj Mahal and Jamal pretends to be a tourist guide to show people the ‘real India’. Jamal and Salim then steal wallets, shoes and necessities they can find, and they end up selling them. The two then return to Mumbai in search of Latika, Jamal stumbles across a young orphan boy who was blinded by Maman. Jamal gives him an $100 dollar bill in return for information about where Latika is. The young boy reveals the person who is on this bill, which will help him in the future.
Jamal and Salim then begin to search for Latika in Mumbais Red light district, they find her in the care of Maman. Salim kills Maman with a revolver bearing the Samuel Colt Insignia. The three then escape to an abandoned hotel, however Salim becomes corrupted due to the power he feels from killing Maman, so he becomes embroiled with the gangster Javhed. Salim then returns back to the hotel room so he can kick Jamal out and rape Latika. Several years later, Jamal is now working in a call centre, where he learns how to become a contestant on who wants to be a millionaire? He finds Salim’s phone number whilst working there this then leads to him reuniting with Salim, and learning that he is still working with Javhed. Jamal then leaves Salim, to avoid Javhed, and goes to Salim’s apartment. One day Jamal follows Salim to Javhed’s house, where Jamal pretends to be a “dishwasher” and he finds Latika being held against her will. Jamal learns here that Latika watches the show who wants to be a millionaire? Jamal tells Latika that he will wait at t
he train station for her, every day at 5 o’clock. After many days Latika then arrives, wearing a beautiful yellow dress which correlates to the shot that we see of her throughout the film. However Salim and Javheds
men drags her back and Salim cuts her on her cheek, leaving a scar.
Jamal then applies to be a contestant on who wants to be a millionaire as he remembers seeing Latika watch it so he try’s to get to her through the show. Latika sees Jamal in the show and is able to escape with the help of Salim, Salim gives Latika his car and phone. Latika then escapes. Jamal uses the Option to phone a friend so who chooses to phone Salim, however Latika has his phone. Latika is watching the show from the slums and realises that Jamal is trying to call her, she sprints back to the car to answer the phone. However Latika doesn’t know the answer to the question, so he guesses and gets it correct, he becomes a millionaire. Whilst this is occuring Salim is scattering Javheds money in the bathtub and he sacrifices himself to kill some of Javheds men. Jamal then leaves the studio and Jamal and Latika then reunite at the train station. They kiss and everything is right again.
Plot:
This mind map illustrates the timeline of of Slumdog Millionaire and includes how the plot is structured. The plot begins with Jamal being interrogated by the police about how he came around to almost becoming a millionaire on the programme “who wants to be a millionaire?”. We then see Jamal in the studio with Prem and as he gets asked questions by Prem, the film flashbacks (Analepsis) to when Jamal was younger and we see how he came around to learning the answer to the questions he is asked in the studio. This then continues through the film, including cross-cutting and parallel editing. Due to these techniques we see what Jamal and Salim went through, how they met Latika, how they survive and how Jamal came to being a contestant on the show. We also get Prolepsis (flash-forward) of seeing Latika wearing a beautiful yellow dress at the train station, we see this shot several times which reminds us that Latika is Jamals main thing that he desires.