Lanaya Salim(FGCU): Slumdog Millionaire

Once in a while, a movie comes along that truly captures your heart, for me it was this year’s film Slumdog Millionaire. I saw it win every award that it was nominated for, I would see the previews and here all the accolodes for it. I knew it was finally time I saw this movie. From the opening scene I was already captivated.The film is heartbreaking, romantic, comedic and powerful. It follows the story of three young children from the slums and the youngest boy from the slums of Mumbai, when he grows up makes it on India’s version of Who wants to be a Millionaire?, he wins it all, and people of course thought he cheated because they wonder how a kid from the slums could know anything. As each question is read, he flashes back to an event from his past that has to do with the question. His life experiences win him everything. Of course his life experiences are so heartbreaking. I am not going to type out the entire plot line and all the details, but the point I am trying to get across is this. The film shows a part of the country, that many people go without paying attention to. 

Mumbai has about 60 percent of their population living in slums. That is more than 7 million people. That is tragic. There are so many children left without parents and homes. The families sleep in dirt, trash infested areas, with barely anything to keep them protected from the outside. This film shows us just what is going on the world, without sugarcoating anything. Most movies these days focus on the rich and fabulous lives of people living in New York and LA. This movie has opened my eyes .

We all take so much of what we have for granted, and don’t even realize what is really going on in the world. I know there are so many third world countries out there that we are trying to help and it is so heartbreaking. Two of the children of this film actually lived in the slums. They filmed in the actual slums. What I don’t understand is this, India has so many wealthy parts to it’s country but nothing is being done about 7 MILLION people being left to live as “slum dwellers”. WHY? Our country is always reaching out and helping.  They didn’t sugarcoat this film because they wanted to show what life is really like for these people, by using real people, that are familar with this. The fact that children beg for money by doing whatever they need to breaks my heart.

I am glad this movie came out, I am glad I saw it, and I am glad it won so many awards. My eyes were opened completely and I always try to count my blessings because I know people out there would kill to have the things I have and when I find myself complaining over something so silly, I stop and realize how lucky I am to have a little problem like not being able to go out to a nice dinner.

Works Cited

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/

http://www.macalester.edu/courses/GEOG61/espencer/slums.html

This entry was posted on 15. April 2009 at 00:06 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.