Slumdog Millionaire (Blog assignment #1)

7. In one exchange of dialogue in the film during the interrogation of Jamal, the police inspectors discuss the
impossibility of what Jamal knows.
Police Inspector: Doctors... Lawyers... never get past 60 thousand rupees. He's on 6 million. [pause]
Police Inspector: What can our slumdog possibly know?
Jamal Malik: [quietly] The answers.
Discuss the irony in the film that Jamal “knows too much” and is suspected of cheating. Discuss the irony that in the end, his poverty may make him rich. What point is the film making? What is real wealth?
It's because of the consecuences of his life he knew the answers. The irony is that, like, since his life had been of a hard childhood, all of that experience was helpful in the end to make him rich, to know the answers, the karma came back to him, a little late. The point is that no matter what hardships you go through, in the end, you will be repayed depending of how you overcame the hardships. Real wealth is knowledge, loving the person you like and that person loving you back, that is real rich, because moeny is just something material that might be lost easily, while the others can't be lossed, or at least not so easily.

8. The game show format brings into to focus the culture of meaningless competition. What does the spectacle of the game say about what people value today? What values does the media promote? Are they humanizing values?
The media promotes money, beauty, looks, fashion. This are not humanizing values because they are just superficial values; the imprtant ones are respect, responsability, tolerance, and many more, which help the world be better.

9. Greed, corruption and the misuse of power are highlighted in the film through a variety of characters. How are those who have money and power glamorized in this film? What happens to the victims?
The people with money are most of them seen as corrupted people, like the mafia or Maman; they are seen as powerful people, most of the time untouchable. Maman took kids, took advantage of them and made them beg for money. Once they learned the song he teached them, he would burn their eyes, because a blind singer got more money. The mafia man let Salim be with him, so he took Latika with him, and Latika was forced to be with the mafia man, and she had almost no liberty with him. When Salim betrayed him, he killed him.

11. Describe how loss, chance, luck, suffering, and street smarts are also characters behind the scenes. The film explores gain and loss side by side. Triumphs are tempered with loss. Where do you see this evident?
Jamal's childhood was of poverty, when he grows up he becomes rich. Salim after working with the mafia got rich and had power, but later is killed for all his bad deeds. Latika always gave herself away to help Jamal, in the end she is able to be with him. Maman takes kids to take advantage of them, he ends up killed by Salim. Many of Jamal's answers were because of bad experiences in his life, like when his mom was killed.