October 28, 2011

The "Slumdog Millionaire" scenario...

... plays out in real life.
Posted by Ann Althouse at 9:06 AM
Tags: , , ,

11 comments:

MisterBuddwing said...

Except, of course, that the movie's hero, Jamal, won through dumb luck - he just happened to know the answers based on his rough-and-tumble life's experiences. This fellow knew all the answers because he's such an avid reader.

WV: prinkfu

10/28/11, 9:11 AM
Ann Althouse said...

"Except, of course, that the movie's hero, Jamal, won through dumb luck - he just happened to know the answers based on his rough-and-tumble life's experiences."

Jamal won because "It is written."

That is, it was fiction. In real-life, it happens as it happened for Sushil Kumar, which, if it it hadn't already been fictionalized in "Slumdog Millionaire" would have been fictionalized like that. Who watches a movie that is about someone who reads a lot?

It must always be transformed into real experiences that can be shown. E.g. "The Princess Bride," "The Fall."

10/28/11, 9:24 AM
Ann Althouse said...

"The Neverending Story."

10/28/11, 9:24 AM
MisterBuddwing said...

Spot on, professor, but while I enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire, I also found myself realizing that it was pulling a fast one on us - its back-and-forth flashback structure camouflaged the absurdity of Jamal's incidental knowledge. That is to say, if the movie had been told in chronological order, with Jamal going through his life experiences and then going on "Millionaire" and having each and every question magically coincide with what he'd gone through, we (the audience) would have been shouting at the screen, not cheering him on.

WV: billyste

10/28/11, 9:32 AM
MadisonMan said...

It sounds like he has plans to spend all the money right away. Bad planning.

10/28/11, 9:48 AM
pm317 said...

There are times we say 'only in America'. This is one of those 'only in India' kind of feel good story. This past weekend there was a scene in our vacation rental where one of our guests said 'when I think of India, all I think of is poverty, dirt, and misery' -- this was her response to our narrative of what a middle class life in India is -- she didn't believe there was a healthy middle class India. I should have let it go as the most ignorant thing to say but I got all hurt and emotional about what she said and why she would say it to our face. But behind every purported poverty-stricken, dirty and sad face she sees, there is a story of perseverance and hope grounded in a mindset that values education. Sometimes there are even well deserved rewards and upward economic mobility. Granted it is not fast enough for most people.

WV: uniques

10/28/11, 10:05 AM
MisterBuddwing said...

pm317: Might I suggest cramming a DVD of Monsoon Wedding down the throat of the lady (a term I use advisedly).

WV: aligg

10/28/11, 10:08 AM
pm317 said...

I did not like to see the movie Slumdog.. It is a cliched story of a westerner coming to India to do a Cinderella story. The beautiful little girl who played a character in the movie was actually from the Bombay slums and after the movie she went back to the slums. People forget that there is dignity in all existence and that it is wrong to gawk at people's existence. Like our friend over the weekend who wanted to gawk at us, immigrants of Indian origin.

WV: 'solve' -- don't gawk if you don't have a solution..

10/28/11, 10:14 AM
pm317 said...

MisterBuddwing said...
-----------------

Yeah, why didn't I think of that!

10/28/11, 10:15 AM
edutcher said...

There's a couple feedthepig commercials that effectively answer this.

10/28/11, 10:24 AM
ic said...

A library for the village? Do our winners of millions do that?

10/28/11, 11:37 AM

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