Slumdog Millionaire

I have chosen this opening film as it provides a different but true India culture. It tells a story through the main character -- Jamal, his life and the TV show” Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”.

The film tells the story of Jamal Malik, a young orphan from the slums of Mumbai. He wants win the money to save his lover -- Latika.

The frame of the opening film is “why is he being interrogated?” He is a millionaire but the police treated him like a slum dog. The police thought he cheated and the audiences thought he was lucky. And the right answer “It’s been written” forced me to watch more.

The fact in this opening film was shot in two different ways. One is mainly black and dark yellow, and the other one is very colourful and bright. The first way makes me worried, and also I feel sorry for Jamal. The second way make me feel nervous, and this shot puts me on Jamal’s side immediately.

The Point of View shot are an important device in the opening film as the colours. The first shot in the opening film is an extreme close-up shot, and there are mainly black and yellow, doesn’t have any soft colours.  The first shot shows the main character – Jamal straight away, he’s worried and we want to know why he looks so worried. The camera changed angle, and I saw a fat guy smoked on his face, the movie begins the middle of the story and back to the beginning to find everything out.  And we see small white fonts on the screen; it introduces the setting of the story. The police smacked Jamal, and the loud smack sound is shocking.

The movie asked a question just like the game show on the black screen, there are four different answers and only one is the correct answer, and we have to find the right answer in the film. Black screen and white fonts make me feel stress. The clock sound also copied from the game show, and we saw tow hands, hands throw money everywhere and full of the bathtub. Money means the game show” Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and it is fast-forward to Jamal’s brother -- Salim’s death.

Then we back to the game show and we still can hear the clock sound. Strong light hits Jamal’s face; we can see how nervous he is through the bright light. Now everything in this game show is so colorful. The high angle shot make Jamal looks small, and he looks like be targeted and everyone tries to shoot him.

Suddenly the lens back to the smack, the police asked the same question just likes the game show host. The game show back again, the host mocks him, and made the audiences laughed at him. The host tried to make Jamal sounds less important and there are a lots high angle shots in this part, it for make Jamal looks small and we feel sorry for him.

The lens changed fast between the prison and the game show; there are lots different lights, angles and colors in two different environments. The mood changes fast when the camera shots the prison and the game show. The police and the host keeps ask the same question, and the lens changed to Latika, which in nearly end of the story. She wears yellow just like the color in the prison, but the light yellow that she wears means happiness, and the dark yellow in prison means darkness.

We can see the smile on Latika’s face, and it is also a high angle shot. It make me feel like I was Jamal and I just saw my lover stand there and waited for me. Everything makes me want to stand by Jamal’s side and I wonder what happened to him.

The head police came in and they used strong electricity to make Jamal tell the truth. The two polices don’t believe his, in their eyes, Jamal just a slumdog.   But we know it must be a long story behind the game show, and I believed him immediately when I saw Jamal passed out by the electricity.

So there are only three answers left for me, and I was going to find the right one.