This can be seen by Jam Mali a Slumlord from the slums of Bombay (later Iambi) who fights to get the girl and to change his resistances and Nanking Jaywalker who battles for his freedom from Watt his Nabob slave master. Jam Mali and Nanking Jaywalker are both characters that are able to challenge their ‘pre-set social standing’ and achieve their true potential. Both of these characters show the core theme of being able to achieve one’s goals despite the pre-set social standing.
The Directors Of these devout films are able to show this theme through their use of film techniques and character development. Throughout these films the directors give us real-world messages about how racism and prejudice hinders the internal working of our society y giving us the analogy Of their two respective characters and their social circumstances. Jam Mali is presented to us by Danny Bobble as an intelligent, resourceful and caring person.
However, Bobble also shows us that most people wouldn’t believe that he was capable of being this type of person due to his position in the Indian caste system (aka his social standing) as many would believe that Slumlord’s were no better than primitive beings, The Inspector helps us to understand the mind-set that Bobble is trying to show us about the way that Indian citizens view he people that life in their slums when he says “Doctors, Lawyers never get past 60 thousand rupees. What could a Slumlord possibly known”.
This shows us that Indian’s view Slumlords as uneducated and stupid and this is a fact that Bobble keeps restating to us: ” Bali, keep up! The Callahan knows more than you”. Even though Bobble uses India and Jam Mali to express the idea of racism and prejudice towards people, he is not merely referring to India as a point of prejudice Bobble is actually saying that prejudice exists in our society in many countries around the world in many forms and he only uses India to express his because it is a place, that many people associate With prejudice existing.
Though all this prejudice exists in India, Jam is able to overcome his social circumstances by using his intelligence and Wits to achieve his goal. This is mainly due to the power of love as Jam seeks out his goal which is the love of his life Latvia a girl from the slums that Jam and Salami meet when their mother dies. Through his journey of finding Latvia Jam is able to prove himself and challenge other peoples believes about himself and other slum dwellers as in order to find
Latvia Jam goes onto ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ where he is enduring Prep the TV shows host mock his place in the caste system. Even though Prep mocks Jam, Jam answers the questions and is able to prove to Prep and the TV shows audience that he is intelligent and isn’t bound to others peoples prejudices about him. Another fact that shows the Slumlord millionaire viewers about Jamb’s true potential is when he is able to counter act Prep, even he is pretending to give Jam the correct’ answer but is instead deceiving him so that he is not out shone in his own show.
Nanking SkyВ»walker faces similar problems to Jam Mali in the respect that they both have to prove themselves to others. Nanking is imprisoned by Watt a Nabob slave owner who hinders Nanking from achieving his potential and thereby his goal of becoming jaded. The Post Pod Race sequence is a very important sequence in the film as it is where Nanking learns that his mother has not attained freedom from Watt. This sequence plays an important part in the movie as it shows Lucas audiences’ that achieving ones goal comes with a sacrifice of one kind or another.
Manikin’s main goal is that he could be tree and become a Jed. Nanking mainly battles his social circumstances in the pod race as he is able to battle the other racers to achieve his freedom as Gig Goon Jinn is able to place a bet on his freedom, This results in Nanking having a real conviction to win as he knows that by winning the Pod race he will be able to prove himself to the Jed knights and achieve his freedom, Helping the two Jed Knights is important to Nanking as he believes that by helping them acquire the parts they need he is doing a good dead.
This is something that threatens the social norm of the lower classes being uncaring and submissive as contrary to belief Nanking has a pure drive to disobey his slave master and to help his true friends. Nanking like Jam faced skepticism and prejudice from Others Who judged him on his position in Nabob’s social hierarchy. This can be seen mainly seen through the film technique Of dialogue and people’s behavior towards the characters “you won’t beat me you slave scum! This piece of dialogue by Manikin’s racing opponent shows us how society views the lower classes as inferior beings that cannot succeed in life. This seriously hinders both the characters in their respective films and consequently hinders (but not stops) them from achieving their goals as people don’t take them seriously and mock them openly, However, Nanking doesn’t experience the same level of prejudice as Jam as Watt recognizes his ability in creating machines.
This helps Nanking as it allows him to gain experience and knowledge in making technology which would allow him to finally achieve his goal of becoming a Jed through building and manning a pod in the pod race which he consequently wins. Jamb’s talents on the other and weren’t recognized by many people as many believed him stupid, Nanking was mainly able to challenge his social circumstances because of the two Jed Knights (Obi Wan Kenton and Gig Goon Jinn) as they kindle his spark and they help him achieve his goal of freedom from his slave master by betting their spacecraft on him.
Apart from the two Seed’s Knights Nanking has his mother Shim Sparkler, Manikin’s mother teaches him values and plays a large role in supporting and caring for him this allows Nanking to fight his social circumstances with much vigor once he has receives her blessing. This significantly differs to what Jam goes through as his mother dies when he is very young so he has no real maternal influence to support him in his aspirations.
On the contrary to vat you might think Jam has Latvia his true love to motivate him towards success in this way the two characters are similar as they both have people they love to support them and drive them on their journey to battle their social circumstances and to achieve their potentials. Lucas and Bobble show us an important message about that way that we as a society judge others based on trivial things like their sex, social standing and ethnic groups and how racism and prejudice hinders individuals from achieving their goals.
This is an important message for our global community as we live in a world of progress and innovation and by allowing others to achieve their aspirations we are consequently enabling our world to progress. Both Bobble and Lucas show us through Nanking Jaywalker and Jam Mali that changing these prejudices and overcoming them is not impossible as all one needs is vision and determination to battle these pre-set stereotypes, Battling one’s circumstances to make a fairer world is one of the main ideas explored in both of these films.
