Slumdog millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle is one of the best films I have watched in years. The story starts with “Jamal Malik” (main character), a youngster from the slums who is on the popular Hindi version of “Who wants to be a millionaire? ” His main motive for being on the show is to find his lost love from childhood. Apart from being illiterate, he goes on to win the show. Apart from his victory, he is handed over to the police in suspicion of cheating. Once the police have him, they brutally injure him to make him tell how he cheated.
Eventually they settle down to listen to his story. To prove his innocence, Jamal tells his life to explain that from his life experiences – scene by scene, he knew the answer. The movie has a sensitive touch to it and might appeal to an older and mature audience who has a taste in reality movies but is also a bore to specific youngsters. The story brings together great culture and simplicity to the viewer that there seems to be nothing unreal. First, the performance of the characters in the movie is executed perfectly.
As the scenes are played, it seems as if the film has a lot of truth and reality movie to express to the audience, which is formidable. Second, the film as it started out grasped my attention and from there on, there was never a dull moment. I really appreciated the new method of conveying the story. While Jamal explained to the police officers his life story, the film showed flashback scenes of his life which proved to the viewers and the police officers that he knew the correct answers through his years of living in the slums.
An ideal audience to watch “Slumdog Millionaire” must be mature enough to watch a film which includes offensive language and disturbing scenes. Personally, through my experience, I believe that if a movie has won four awards at the Golden Globe, it is worthy enough to watch. Particularly for this movie, a direct audience would ideally be anybody who is able to correlate between a slum and a normal city. Older individuals would perfectly fit the profile; and it may even appeal to mature youngsters due to a light romantic story between Jamal and his lover.
The audience must also be “down-to-earth” to accept the reality of Mumbai which may seem ugly yet true. Even though there were tragic events which occurred in the film, the story’s setting – Mumbai and its counterparts provide a sensible feeling among viewers. There may be also many resisting viewers to enjoy or even watch the award winning film. A direct audience which will definitely react would be some of the older Indian population or younger males or females worldwide. The reasons behind the opposition from the Indian community would be “the oppression, prejudices, and economic exploitation within Indian life”.
The exploitation of the Mumbai slums may even offend some to an extent that they might to sue the director. Coming from that, the story is also too simple that it might even get a little boring for the young males in the audience. As young males mostly prefer action and thriller films and young females prefer more of a pure romantic type of film, it would not closely fit their criteria. Therefore, Slumdog millionaire is suitable for any audience as long as they are willing to face the realities found in the city of Mumbai, India and the little stories which go along with it.
