Philosophical Critique of Slumdog Millionaire

[@riverblack123]

I think it's the triumph and victory over the horrible things that Jamal and Latika went through that makes the story beautiful. If they were to win against trivial conflicts instead of brutal adversities, it wouldn't be as impactful. But because they came victorious over such challenging hardships that at some point seemed impossible to win against, the end is much more uplifting and hopeful. Just because it is written, doesn't mean they didn't earn it. Written or not, Jamal still chose to remain good instead of becoming a criminal like Salin, and chose to never give up on Latika. Yes, it's written that he would choose these things, but that doesn't take the fact that he made decisions by his own will. It is very uncertain to say the blind boy had it worse than Jamal because we don't know what happened to him in his adulthood. Of course the people were happy for Jamal, are they not allowed to be happy for another person's success or like him due to his "charisma"? I think it's a fantastic love story about hope and not giving up in the face of hardship. If Jamal and his family didn't live in a world where people suffer, then could we really say that he's battling any hardship at all?

[@Nabrashaa]

When I think of this movie I think of a feel-good movie, but you're totally right that it is actually really grim. It's like the ending of the movie brainwashed me...

[@cheasgsyu2465]

More like this video brainwashed you. How was it a grim ending? Jamal wins the money and Latika is free.

[@TheGemsbok]

You have misread her comment. She contends that the ending is the only part of the film that is not grim.

[@TeAmoConTodoMiAlma]

@@cheasgsyu2465 The movie is grim.. people are murdered.. children are literally blinded.. a teenage girl is r@ped..

[@OmneAurumNon]

I have another reading for the "it is written" line. What if it really means that all of this happens because the story literally "was written" for a film. In other words, all of those wonderful coincidences and lucky breakthroughs only happened for Jamal because he is a character in a story, not because of fate.

[@TheGemsbok]

Interesting idea! Thanks for sharing. I could definitely see there being a worthwhile metatextual interpretation of the movie. That said, the events being fated because they were written by a screenwriter and the events being fated because they were written by the cosmos are not ultimately much different in terms of how the story relates to reality and viewer psychology. And, unfortunately, that wouldn't really resolve the disconnect between the light-hearted glee of the conclusion and the abject cruelty (human immolations, acid attacks, genocides, rapes, etc) visited upon the peripheral characters.

[@OmneAurumNon]

@@TheGemsbok True, it doesn't resolve the incongruity, and I don't think the writers intended it as such, but I think it's an interpretation worth considering. And I do think there is a difference between it being written by a screenwriter and written by fate. If it's written by fate, we should expect reality to follow the same pattern. If it's only written by the screenwriter, it throws narrative conventions into contrast with way the world is, which highlights the ending as being over the top and even a little silly. So, from that perspective, the incongruity (while still present) becomes a kind of critique (albeit, likely an unintentional one) of the philosophy that the film is, in a much more obvious way, encouraging.

[@OmneAurumNon]

@@TheGemsbok Thanks for making this video by the way! I'm teaching this movie in my freshman English class tomorrow, and this video gave me some interesting directions to steer the conversation

[@TheGemsbok]

Awesome, glad to hear that! A somewhat surprising and gratifying part of running my website (and later this channel) over the past 5 years has been the number of classrooms that have incorporated my writing into curricula. I'm pleased to be involved at any level, even the 'inspiration for discussion' phase. As to your other comment: I am certainly willing to admit that the expression of fate as 'writing' raises the topic, and thereby opens the door for that kind of analysis. And, like I said before, I *do* think it would be an interesting and worthwhile analysis. But ultimately there's no wry tone, no sardonic self-commentary, no tip of the hand to suggest to most viewers that they should be critical of what they see. It's not Michael Haneke's Funny Games---nor even Peter Weir's The Truman Show. It's Danny Boyle, and it's a work of gritty realism with a few effervescent scenes of joy at the tail end of the bloodshed. I'm a fairly entrenched formalist when it comes to media analysis; for me, the details of a work offer a body of evidence, and as an analyst I'm just trying to explain which interpretation(s) seem to fit that evidence the best, from my perspective.

[@Xxrocknrollgod]

No

[@zionmeier2531]

completely agree, i felt unsatisfied at the end because the ends just didn’t justify the means. Like what was the meaning? if you’re a good person then a life of horrible circumstances might result in one really good thing? but even then that’s inconsistent because so many characters had terrible endings who didn’t deserve them. If the theme is just destiny then i don’t like destiny! and those ending shots of everyone watching the tv while Jamal won felt so sad. it felt like “while everyone else suffers Jamal gets a happy ending, why? destiny (which is only real in movies)

[@life09m]

Tf you wanted him to do ? Free the world ? 😂

[@denverbritto5606]

Great video man, I always hated the movie for these reasons since I first saw it but couldn't explain myself well until watching this. The one that most stood out for me is the kids who got blinded and had to be beggars after that. Film seems to either forget about them in the exuberance of its finale or suggest that they get some sort of vicarious upliftment from Jamal's redemption. Disagree a bit with your reading of Salim's fate though. I didn't see him as redeemed or seeing himself as redeemed, but I saw him as acknowledging his life had been pursued for only material gains by lying down in that bath of money, and dying in it.

[@TheGemsbok]

Interesting point, thanks for the comment! It's true that I haven't thought enough about the symbolism of the tub of money, and that it could be interpreted as an opaque reference to Salim's guilt over his crimes. My interpretation of that sequence focuses more on the cinematography, dialogue, and editing of it---i.e. the ascendant camera movement, Salim's religious self-satisfaction (and how that parallels the whole movie's worship of benevolent destiny), and the way the death fades directly into the victory at the game show.

[@franklinshure960]

Very clear and precise. Really enjoyed the video. It's a movie with a lot of well done scenes, but the whole thing just kind of comes up short for me. The dance at the end always makes me laugh. I know they're going for a bollywood thing, but it it's just so completely jarring since the rest of the movie isn't in a bollywood style at all.

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you for the kind words about the video. And I completely agree: the dance feels wildly out-of-place, probably tacked on out of some woefully misguided attempt to appeal to fans of Bollywood. Ultimately, it just ends up reminding me of the sudden dance number at the end of Men in Black. I doubt that's company Boyle would've wanted, given that MIB is a sci-fi comedy and SM is a serious drama.

[@lampad4549]

Well dance isnt something that is just a Bollywood thing its something that is heavily ingrained in Indian culture hence why we see so often in Bollywood in the first place and if the film ending is meant to be a celebration of sorts than a dance seems appropriate.

[@cheasgsyu2465]

@@TheGemsbok then you would probably hate all Bollywood movies considering they all follow a pretty similar purpose that slumdog millionaire does. A lot of Bollywood movies are very serious dealing with suicide, terminal illness, corruption and they all have time to squeeze in a dance number seems like indian cinema isnt for you.

[@TheGemsbok]

While I haven't delved too much into modern Indian cinema, so I can't comment on that, I have greatly enjoyed the excellent films of Satyajit Ray, and those I've seen by him are entirely without gleeful musical numbers. So I don't think your premise is a universal truth.

[@NaveedAslam-gl6uv]

Eyes & Mind Opener🙏💯

[@mrickard3621]

YOU HAVE PROVOKED MY THOUGHTS WITH YOUR WORDS. I DO NOT MIND SPOILERS. THE SKETCHES WERE POOR.

[@TheGemsbok]

Uh, thanks. Haha. I probably won't pass your sentiments along to the illustrator.

[@jbr1255]

My read is that there is no reason for anything, only what you learn from it. Suffering and happiness can teach you things but either way what you do with that knowledge is what guides you. Jamal being willing to listen and learn when his brother would always do what he wanted and didn't learn from his mistakes means they had completely different paths. Jamal found happiness only through reconciling the past and remembering what he needed to. "It is written" could be understood to mean this is just the way it is. This is the hand I was dealt, play it or not, I'm still in the game.

[@TheGemsbok]

If the phrase was simply floating in the void before and after the film, I would think that kind of semi-Stoic approach is a potentially promising reading. But it has specific context on the four occasions that it comes up. It is always offered as an answer to a question about why things have occurred or circumstances have obtained. That's how Prem uses it; that's how the opening and closing use it; that's how Jamal uses it. It's given as a sufficient account, and never paired with any sentiment about 'reading what is written' or 'using what is written.' According to the movie, things happen as they do simply because it _is_ written. And beyond that, it would still be necessary to contend with the line's implication of a 'writer'---as well as Salim's dying expression (after his 'redemption arc') that "God is great."

[@jbr1255]

@@TheGemsbok perhaps there is a point therein that shows that whether God's plan, a writer's notes, and life's meaning itself are inherently unfathomable or indistinguishable and therefore it's a misleading or a question aiming to misdirect. All of these viewpoints still pose the same question, with the same answer, it is written, but you could say different characters attribute a different "writer", through God, a literal writer or life's random chaos. Are they wrong, or does the answer not matter? Appreciate the reply, certainly more deep than I was anticipating! 💜

[@BehemothsMargarita]

Nice analysis and well made video, keep it up!

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you for the nice comment! I'm currently aiming to publish a new video roughly every month, so more should definitely be on the way.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Watching this film never felt 'right' to me. I think you got the grasp why.

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you! It's gratifying to hear that this experience was shared by others when watching it.

[@JUICEboxCinema000]

I love your videos, what program do you use to edit them?

[@TheGemsbok]

Thanks! I primarily use Premiere Pro, Audacity, and Gimp.

[@kevintyrrell7409]

When Salim dies, I don't think the director was trying to give off the feeling of 'he has redeemed himself'. I believe its more like Scarface, where at the end you realize that a lifetime of pain and misfortune inflicted on others has finally caught up to him. No matter what Salim did from that point on, he has caused too much pain in his lifetime and therefore cannot have a redemption for his character. Instead he chooses to exit life on his own terms, just as violently as any other way that would have ended up happening to him (e.g. him getting shot to death during a hit, or put in jail for life, etc). When I watched his death scene, it invoked the thought of: 'it all comes around, eventually'.

[@TheGemsbok]

The nature of a video like this is that the quick, truncated-audio clip I show of a scene can not convey all of the details of it: the mix of audio that places the cheering crowds under the moment, its place in the climactic montage of the gameshow victory, and its fading directly into the celebrations of Jamal and Prem---it's all of that material in combination with the ascendant camera movement, Salim's dialogue, and his peaceful facial expression that lead to my interpretation. But even if you take his words ('God is great') not to mean 'God has ensured a good outcome,' but simply to mean 'God ensures that karma is resolved,' that still obviously meshes well with this video's discussion of the movie's worship of Providence.

[@kevintyrrell7409]

@@TheGemsbok Fair point for sure. Its difficult to tell if the director intended that to be a symbol of Salim or if he intended it to be a stark contrast: one brother dying in a bathtub to gunmen in a flash of violence, the other brother becoming world famous Infront of a crowd of millions

[@journeration1]

The funny thing about the image he shows for Danny Boyle that is labeled a caricature is that it looks more normal than Danny Boyle's actual face. Weird triangle shaped head on that man.

[@TheGemsbok]

Well, fortunately for him, I do not believe the same can be said of Thomas Nagel and the sketch shown for him.

[@journeration1]

lol just looked him up, and yeah you're right. He is kind of weird looking too though.

[@chamikk90]

the argument holds true when you live in a society where you are a slave to systematic oppression and there is no way of escaping it, making your life meaningless.

[@TheGemsbok]

That kind of situation certainly makes life a lot harder, but I don't know that it makes it less likely for a life to be meaningful. Obviously, this would come down to a person's definition of 'meaning,' though. If you're curious to hear more about that 'final outcome argument' (and Thomas Nagel's response to it), I dedicate more direct attention to it in the following article: thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/philosophy-articles-friday-phil-thomas-nagel-meaning-morality/

[@lampad4549]

That just isnt true plenty of people do it every day it is harder yes but the idea that you cant escape it isnt true plenty.

[@denverbritto5606]

plenty of people in the slums are happy with their lives, doesn't mean that it's fine for them to live in squalor and they don't deserve help to improve their conditions, but it does show that their life is very meaningful to them.

[@shaney169]

In the end, this is a love story, and about how destiny brought them together through many unfortunate and unfortunately, realistic events. I think that's really all this was.

[@JackVo]

I have very different interpretation of ths story. He can remember all those answer is through plianful experience, there is no reward only pain. I rather don't know any of those answers.

[@batchagaloopytv5816]

woulda been fitting if he gave Arvid the winnings and he left w/his love latika

[@tomorrowland8026]

nice

[@TheGemsbok]

I'm glad you feel that way.

[@deathlesspumpkin8433]

Nice

[@zekebrunt]

Cool. Cool cool cool.

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you, Abed.

[@zekebrunt]

@@TheGemsbok I have discovered you have a subreddit, although there are no mods, no members and no posts, it seems to be a good place to expand discussion of your website and channel...

[@TheGemsbok]

Ha, yes, I made that subreddit to reserve the name in case I ever wanted to start a community there. At some point, though, it gets to be too many independent things: I'm already actively trying to 'build an audience' of KZbin channel subscribers, website email subscribers, Twitter followers, and Facebook followers. I figure, if I focus on just a few things (especially just continuing to make videos and articles), then communities may naturally form in other spots like Reddit and Tumblr later on.

[@zekebrunt]

@@TheGemsbok You're definitely right, because had it not already existed, I would've made it myself lol

[@TheGemsbok]

Well, What's your Reddit username? I just reclaimed the sub, and could add you to the mod list so you can do what you like with it.

[@Principles_of_Psychology]

Very shallow and nihilistic interpretation of the movie. The movie is not a philosophical pamphlet nor meant to be read as such. A psychological interpretation is equally possible: That sometimes, hardship and trauma can produce unexpected good outcomes eventually .This is a message of hope that is not meant to say that the ends justify all means. The latter is a cynical misreading of the story that is simply not in the movie. You can see this from the end, where Jamal simply guesses the right answer. There was no amount of hardship and suffering that could substitute mere good luck.

[@TheGemsbok]

Thank you for taking the time to comment! Every single comment supports the channel. That said, speaking of misreading . . . I can't help noticing that you are responding to a fairly serious misreading of this video. Whether any given event in the film occurs due to luck is not relevant to the argument presented here. Many of the film's events, positive and negative, can be accurately characterized that way. This video is about the overall philosophy embodied by the movie as a whole---the nature of its world, its themes, its character arcs. I take seriously the allegiance to fate that the film proclaims when it begins with, foregrounds, and ends with the phrase 'it is written.' Slumdog Millionaire is indeed a hopeful film---yet it is one whose reasons for hope and conception of hope are forms that I consider (though popular) wrongheaded.

[@JesusSavesSinners]

😂 A message of Hope Jamal's mother is murdered when he is roughly 8 years old. Him and his brother have to beg and steal to survive. The people in this Film are either in Poverty or they are Criminals. Slumdog Millionaire is a bad Movie. The Editing, the Story is horrible. It is not realistic in any way. It is a poorly made horror story. Let's say the brothers survive the Genocide of their City. In real life they would not have survived long without their mother to support them. Kids left alone in India will quickly die, from exposure. The 🌞☀️ Sun's heat will quickly kill people without shelter. Poverty is so bad in India they would die of starvation. How these boys were supposed to have survived, by stealing, would have put them in early graves. In India the public will kill you for stealing. The government will 🪓 off your hand. Salim is a very poorly written character. He is this psycho child that will kill a baby and report kids to their villian kidnapper. Then he saves his brother from being blinded but is Cruel to Lativia a little girl crying in the rain. Than he threatens to murder his Brother if he will not leave because he wants to Rape Lativia. Salim is not remotely believable. Too many villians, who are all Comic Book style over the top Evil, in this Garbage movie. The $hit scene was disgusting and out of place, it was gross not funny. This Ignorant movie won Best picture and a lot more Oscars... 😮 😮 😮😮 The Oscars are Political and have been since the beginning getting to be now for 20 years the politically correct awards. The Best is not who wins the Oscars.

[@shreyeah]

​@@JesusSavesSinners I can tell you that the movie's depiction of the lives of kids of the lower-most tier of India is accurate. And this is coming from a person who has lived in India their whole life. A lot of poor kids do grow-up alone here by begging on the streets. And yes they survive. But this survival living makes them majority of the times stone-hearted like Salim. Salim was a bad character throughout the story. He was not inconsistent. And as far as it is concerned with him saving Jamal from getting blinded, we could say that he himself had a little bit of selfish intentions here. He had seen Arvind getting blinded by that man, and knew that the man was not trustworthy, so he chose the better option of taking his brother as a company to him and running away. You cannot seem to appreciate the movie, because you do not have the reference point of how the depictions shown in the movie are close to reality. But trust me the movie has won the Oscars because it deserves it.

[@JesusSavesSinners]

@@shreyeah I am Not going to run in Circles. I stand by Everything I said. The Movie is Not a Good Movie. The Tone is ALL over the place. The Movie starts out with what is supposed to be Comedy but was just a Horrific Disgusting kid is covered in SH!T!!!! I don't take a Filmmaker Seriously that does this and Wastes so much Screen time doing it. The Quiz Show Was completely Ridiculous. The Brothers Dynamic WAS NOT CREDIBLE!!!! It was Idiotic to have his Brother try to MURDER HIM!!!! Those 2 were up to that point were As close as Brothers could Ever Be!!!! They ONLY had Each Other!!!! You don't just Throw that Away and Instantly become This Vile EVIL TO THE CORE VILLAIN. A RAPISTS!!!! Nobody cares about the Oscars. The Oscars are 100% Political and they don't award the Best in Cinema.

[@shreyeah]

@@JesusSavesSinners There is NO comedy intended by film-makers to start with. This goes on to show how you yourself have not understood the premise of the movie itself. There might be some scenes which are quite unsettling and yes that's true. But just one single scene doesn't make the entire movie bad. That scene is in place just to show that to what extent the kid will go to get what he wants, and that is consistent in the entire movie. The older brother is definitely a morally gray character as it is being portrayed in the film. He does his prayers and asks for forgiveness for his sins to the god and proceeds to take his gun out for work. He was selfish throughout the movie and had little to no care for his younger brother and only acted in the younger ones favor when it was a situation of life or death. People like this exist. You might be thinking all this from a "very morally correct perspective" and that won't give any real sense into the depth of the character. Again, I repeat, you do not have the point of reference to understand this movie. And so I won't even expect anything from you. But you need to acknowledge that your opinion is just an opinion, and subjective to your perspective and it isn't fact-based.

[@NelsonStJames]

The inconsistent philosophy of Slumdog Millionaire is the same inconsistent philosophy you find in Christianity.

[@legomeaker101potato]

and here i thought it was just a boring movie my parents forced me to watch

[@TheGemsbok]

I don't think I said anything in the video that necessarily contradicts your review . . . haha.

[@amatya.rakshasa]

I am not sure if the movie is rooted in the idea of providential justice. Anyone living in India or indeed in any part of the world can tell you that the world is very unfair. For example, there is no justice for the innocent children dying in Gaza, Yemen, Afghanistan, and other war-torn areas, children who are trafficked, children who are SAed and murdered all over the world. In developing countries and in warn-torn countries, the magnitude of exploitation is way larger than let's say in Switzerland. That's a fact and that's what the movie clearly showed. As you pointed out, the good outcomes that happened to the protagonists cannot be compared to the overall overwhelming landscape of injustice. At least in the 90s and earlier, there was a pervasive fatalism in India, where we believed that most of us were fated to be crushed by those in power and by life while a select few were fated to achieve good outcomes. This idea of fate had no notion of justice, providential or otherwise. It just spoke of an inescapable situation devoid of any moral order where a few somehow escaped the grewsome outcomes. The audience also understood that in the context of the 90s, the good outcomes that happened to Latika and Jamal, were only put in the movie so that the audience gets some relief from the general hopelessness of the situation. We knew that the second half of the movie was a commercial decision to engage in wish fulfillment because nobody will pay their hard earned money to watch a movie where children are killed, maimed, SAed, trafficked, and that's it. We see that reality on the streets of Delhi and Mumbai or indeed on the streets of US cities on a daily basis anyway.

[@idrinkcofe]

Issue with philosophy of a movie doesn’t work as a critique of said movie if the plot is well written it’s more just not liking what it stands for but that doesn’t make it bad that being said I do agree it’s farcical how upbeat the ending is but it’s more just a taste thing.

[@thecritiquer9407]

it was not end justifies means for everyone's means. of course government should work to end crime. the movie was just about relatable experience of everyone. u just oversimplied the movie to fit ur understanding of philosophy of movie.

[@Fabbi76]

Never read Voltaire's Zadig

[@TheGemsbok]

Ha, as I say in the first few lines of this video, fatalist narrative media is incredibly common. More common than any other type, perhaps. It's not really avoidable. This video just covers one instance where the badness of the bad events far outweighs the goodness of the good events---and yet where that disconnect goes unacknowledged or even papered over by the presentation of its third act (and by the depiction of its side characters). This disconnect, at least, seemingly does not appear in Zadig, where the protagonist is ultimately crowned a king. Also, while it is the case that cognizance of good requires cognizance of bad---that does not in any way mean that any particular good event justifies any or every particular bad event.

[@Fabbi76]

@@TheGemsbok in fact I was doing the comparison but not on those specific point. Voltaire did not believe in destiny, he absolutely wasn't a determinist. You also have three parts. First act: bad things happen to Zadig, who is a rationalist. He solves every problem, raise in society and every time things seem to be better, something happens and they get worse. Second act he meets an old man who happens to be Destiny himself. That man does bad things everywhere and explains he does them on purpose because things could be worse if he didn't. Third act is quite conventional and pro domo: Zadig is rewarded, there's an happy ending and he fits in society (totally uninteresting, but Voltaire needed a third act in his time). In a first reading, one could conclude Voltaire actually believed in destiny

[@Fabbi76]

@@TheGemsbok I was being sarcastic in saying you shouldn't read Zadig. Every one should have read something from Voltaire once in one's life. I think part of Zadig was published posthumously.

[@TheGemsbok]

I have read Candide (brief mention of it appears in my new video on Demon's Souls), but have not read any of his other work as of yet. Voltaire is great, though!

[@Fabbi76]

@@TheGemsbok Candid is one of the best. Micromegas, Zadig, Treaty of Tolerance, the Huron.

[@elcerdo99]

I think an Indian would understand this film a much better..bcs from this video I can analyse that you didn't get some most important parts of the movie

[@TheGemsbok]

I'd be surprised if that were the case, since it was made by a British production company and a largely British production staff---including British director Danny Boyle, British cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, and British screenwriter Simon Beaufoy providing a very loose adaptation of Swarup's novel. In fact, criticism of Slumdog Millionaire has been most prevalent among Indian filmmakers, artists, and academics for that and other reasons ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_from_India_and_the_Indian_diaspora_to_Slumdog_Millionaire ). It is scarcely more authentically Indian as a movie than Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. On the other hand, I have no such complaints about the films of---for instance---Indian filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt, and Pan Nalin, all of whom have made a number of truly exceptional films.

[@aNdzel0t]

srry but your critique its way too intelegently portrayed for this terrible film.. :D

[@JesusSavesSinners]

😢 Slumdog Millionaire is a bad very sad Movie. The Editing, the Story is horrible. It is not realistic in any way. It is a poorly made horror story. Let's say the brothers survive the Genocide of their City. In real life they would not have survived long without their mother to support them. Kids left alone in India will quickly die, from exposure. The 🌞☀️ Sun's heat will quickly kill people without shelter. Poverty is so bad in India they would die of starvation. How these boys were supposed to have survived, by stealing, would have put them in early graves. In India the public will kill you for stealing. The government will 🪓 off your hand. Salim is a very poorly written character. He is this psycho child that will kill a baby and report kids to their villian kidnapper. Then he saves his brother from being blinded but is Cruel to Lativia a little girl crying in the rain. Than he threatens to murder his Brother if he will not leave because he wants to Rape Lativia. Salim is not remotely believable. Too many villians, who are all Comic Book style over the top Evil, in this Garbage movie. The $hit scene was disgusting and out of place, it was gross not funny. This Ignorant movie won Best picture and a lot more Oscars... 😮 😮 😮😮 The Oscars are Political and have been since the beginning getting to be now for 20 years the politically correct awards. The Best is not who wins the Oscars.