Antony Garcia
English 495 ESM
Professor Wexler
May 12, 2013
The
Solution to all Global Political Problems:
Engaging
the Film Slumdog Millionaire
The
above cited photograph is found in multiple variations across the internet; its
popularity is signified by a society in which instability, global “wage
repression” and an excessive “concentration of wealth in the upper classes,” are
possibly the only certainties (Harvey).
The art produced in our contemporary society, in
all different forms, are seared with these undertones of instability and at
times offer a potential solution, or at the minimum some form of hope for a
better future. The film Slumdog Millionaire is one of the works
produced by society in a volatile time; the work highlights the struggle to
find love against a backdrop of conflicts with religion, crime, security,
scarcity and other such themes. Although
the work is brilliant, and a commendable piece, and while contrasting the
intelligence of life experiences against indoctrinized education, Slumdog Millionaire contradicts the very
undertone of values it questions and perpetuates the beliefs of those who rely
on fortune and chance, thereby placating the masses and ensuring the status
quo.
Slumdog Millionaire
follows the story line of Jamal, Salim and Latika as they grow up, orphaned,
facing hardships which are specific to certain regions of India and yet both
global and universal as they represent common conflicts of man against
society. Jamal is introduced as a man
who has become a millionaire (rupees); but has been kidnapped and tortured by
the local police because they are certain of his guilt, as one of the
interrogators questioned prior to electrocuting him into unconsciousness “just
tell me how you cheated” (Boyle). Herein
the main theme of resistance is highlighted, that of organized education
against the validity of life experiences.
One of Jamal’s interrogators argues with the other, “Professors, doctors,
lawyers never get beyond…million (rupees) what the hell can a Slumdog know?”
(Boyle). Again, Jamal’s intelligence and
ability are questioned because he was born and raised in abject poverty found
in the “slums” of the city, and is therefore incapable of higher intelligence,
knowledge and reason. The film suggests
through various flashbacks of life experiences can have as much value as
“proper” education and thus a solution to these conflicts can be found.
The
additional subplots and conflicts found in the film serve to highlight and
further establish the importance of the primary conflict. One scene emphasizes conflicts of religion and
the scarcity of urban space. Jamal and
Salim become orphans during a scene in which their part of the slum is overrun
by religious fanatics “they’re Muslims, get them!” (Boyle). Men, women, and children are beaten while the
slum is destroyed and set ablaze. Religious
freedom, safety, the sanctity and security of the home (or personal space) are
all threatened.
In later scenes, Latika is
separated from Jamal and Salim when they are picked up and forced to become
part of a crime ring which forces children to beg on the street, at times the
criminals purposefully mutilate children in order to obtain more money. Latika left behind, is trained to become a
kind of Indi-Geisha, ultimately planned for prostitution. Although each of these conflicts are problems
culturally specific to areas of India, they are also very much universal
problems and concerns found in any country, developed or not. Each conflict, in some form are problems
stemming or compounded by the lack of money.
Yet the film explicitly suggests that more money (as well as capitalist
development as propounded by Salim) is the solution to these very problems,
“look down there (referring to new urban and commercial development) that used
to be our slum…[Mumbai a new economic center] and I am in the center of the
center” (Boyle).
It
is within the forum of the game show where life experience and proper education
are set against one another. Jamal
personifies and embodies life experiences while the host represents proper
education. Jamal establishes his intellectual
authority and right to be a competitor in the game due to his knowledge. The game serves as a metaphor, the forum
itself is relevant to the game of life and the success of those able to participate
in institutionalized education; those not able to do so thus acquire knowledge
through life experiences. Despite this
debate in the game show forum, each side of acquired knowledge is respected,
possibly even equally respected as Jamal succeeds question by question.
Although
Slumdog Millionaire highlights the
importance of life experience and equates if not negates that all emphasis
should rest on organized or indoctrinized education, the film itself,
unfortunately, contradicts and undermines its own purpose, essentially offering
a social and political “bait and switch.”
While establishing a forum of debate between education and life experience
and recognizing that each is the foundation of knowledge and reason, necessary to
everyday life and survival, the film then ignores the forum and explicitly
offers only one solution for all of these social problems: winning a game of
chance. Arguably, Jameson’s perspective
of Thomas More’s Utopia, can easily
be attributed to Slumdog Millionaire
since both “[fail] to identify and fundamental agency for radical change”
(41). According to the film, only by
winning a game and amassing money, can humanity find true love, safety,
security, a home and a future. After
this “bait and switch” of social issues, despite the main points and plot of
the film, the work concludes with Jamal, winning the game show and thus he is
able to afford the luxury of financial security and is able to rescue his love
from a life of fear, oppression and prostitution, “emancipation has a price”
(Martin).
In
the finale, the film contradicts itself entirely. While creating the essential conflict of
institutionalized education against life experiences, the ending does not
promote either of these intelligences nor does it offer some kind of solution
to the very real universal problems explicitly found in the film and the
struggle of everyday conflicts of man against society. Although the work clearly promotes financial
security as a remedy to each social problem, the work’s plausible solution is
that of relying on chance to save the characters from the reality of these
difficulties. Therefore it promotes a
blind faith, there is no hope in attempting to prepare for hardships or
attempting to navigate “finance [as a] novel means of domination” (Martin). Slumdog
Millionaire perpetuates religious and capitalist ideologies that it first attempts
to undermine, but finally embraces, as Jameson observes “not the slightest
prospect of reform, let alone revolution in real life” (44). Our only choice is to play the lottery in the
hopes of cashing in and creating our own utopia.
Works Cited
Slumdog Millionaire. Dir. Danny Boyle.
Perf. Dev Patel, Saurabh Shukla, Anil Kapoor.
Celador Films,
2008. DVD
Jameson, Frederic. “The Politics of
Utopia.” New Left Review. 2004. Web.
Martin, Randy. “Where Did the Future
Go?” Logosonline. Logos 5.1, 2006. Web.
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