Sociological Perspective: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Analysis Paper 

The 2008 hit movie titled: Slumdog Millionaire, is based on an 18 year old indian muslim. What makes Jamal Malik (the main character) so interesting is that he answers all the answers correctly on a game show that gives out hefty prize money. The intriguing plot doesn’t stop there, he is then accused of cheating, and proceeds to tell his life story. I will be explaining how Jamal’s upbringing affected his sociological behavior.

Section 1: Theoretical Perspectives

Both symbolic interactionism and conflict theory play a part in this film. It is scary and alarming to see how conflict theory plays a part in this film multiple times, a great example of this can be seen through the scene where police detain Jamal Malik and beat/interrogate him after he has done “surprisingly well” in the game show he participates in. Just because the main character is from “the slums” and able to answer questions correctly left and right, this particular society views it as a cause for concern, and labels Jamal a cheater. Our class textbook supports my claim, on page twenty eight the author states: “conflict theorists stress that society is composed of groups that compete with one another for scarce resources.”, this quote shows the injustice of how Jamal is a part of a group in society labeled as the “lower class”, so him knowing the answers to questions composed from someone in the “upper class” leads this particular society to raise an eyebrow. If we look at a power quote from the creator of this theory, Karl Marx, he stated that: “ In each society, some small group controls the means of production and exploits those who are not in control”; now this passage from page twenty eight our textbook explains the origin of how the small portion of the wealthiest individuals don’t want “lower class” members joining them, as it would lead to the current wealthy group to lose control essentially.

Section 2: Sociological Imagination

Now we will be seeing how the interactions in this movie influence characters socially. To do so, we will have to first examine both, the social and cultural context behind the scenes of Slumdog Millionaire. By taking place in 1992-2006 Mumbai, India. During that time (and still), Dharavi is one of the most populated area with an extremely dense area, to be specific, currently Dharavi has a population of about seven hundred thousand, but only covers a bit over two square kilometres of land. For a little relatable comparison, Fremont, CA only has a population of two hundred and thirty three thousand people, but has over two hundred and twenty six square kilometres of land. So this could really shape Jamal Malik’s social life as having a strong desire to be successful and get out of one of the world’s largest slums, with all due respect to Dharavi, Mumbai. This is because i am sure Jamal is not comfortable with the ratio of human bodies to land, so he would definitely want to apply himself and socially do his best to make connections and become successful and relocate, or maybe even grant a better life towards his brother or, orphanage altogether; but opportunities aren’t handed out to everyone, so instead the Malik brothers have to work very hard and make a living by any means. For instance they had to: wash dishes, pickpocket, make an attempt at being “tour guides” for the Taj Mahal, and even affiliate themselves with crime lords because of their geographical area and specific timing. I believe that if Malik had not been in this area at this time, he would lack the drive that is needed to rescue Latika (his love interest), because of wanting to save her from Salim (an evil goon) Jamal was able to win millions of rupees. All of these events caused Jamal’s sociological behavior to sway towards being vindictive and live life on the edge, lifestyle. Although if Jamal and his brother were from a different social area, there would be a big chance of the Malik brothers lifestyle being drastically different, for instance if there mother had not died from a riot going on in their geographical area (Bombay), it would add a more stable lifestyle towards them. As we can see in page three of our textbook, “ social location, the corners in life that people occupy because of their place in a society.” this quote supports my claim about geographical differences causing different outcomes in life by informing the reader that there is a specific term for this belief.

Section 3: Sociological Concepts

There are many sociological concepts and theories which can be found from viewing Slumdog Millionaire, I will be informing you about three of them. The first, would have to be the concept of social classes; I chose this particular sociological concept as one of my three, because of how much importance and truth it shows in most societies. The class textbook refers to Karl Marxs’ view of this topic as so: “He said that society is made up of two social classes, and they are natural enemies of one another: the bourgeoisie (boo-shwa-ZEE) (the capitalists, those who own the means of production—the money, land, factories, and machines) and the proletariat (the exploited workers, who do not own the means of production).” this quote comes from page ten as pure logic, since we can see it replicated in a scene from the movie; and that scene is where Prem Kumar (the host of the game show) purposefully attempts to feed his contestant, Jamal Malik the incorrect answer during a commercial break. Now if you are wondering how this scene is correlated with Marxs’ class conflict, allow me to break it down for you; the “bourgeoisie” in this case would be Mr.Kumar, since he is a wealthy host who judges our “proletariat”, Mr.Malik as a cheater who shouldn’t experience the luxuries, that the upper class are able to, just because of Jamal coming from the slums. Throughout watching this film, the ending of it reminded me of symbolic interactionism. From page twenty four of our textbook, the reader is able to view the following quote: “The central idea of symbolic interactionism is that symbols—things to which we attach meaning—are the key to understanding how we view the world and communicate with one another.” I chose this quote because it was able to provide a clear picture of an emotional scene which makes an entry in towards the climax of the film; and that poignant scene is where Jamal’s brother, Salim Malik, takes a bullet for his brother from Javed. Now the way this quote and scene correspond is through Salim having a firm understanding of the symbol Jamal holds in his life, which is being his brother. Through respect of symbolic interactionism Salim decided his action of giving up his life for his brother who always held a special place in his life, since he was the only family he had left. The last sociological concept i’d like to share is culture, page thirty six of Mr.Henslin’s insightful textbook describes culture as: “the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next.”. Now that we know what culture really is, it’s fairly easy to connect it to the movie scene where, the game show host asks Jamal who is on the cover of the hundred dollar bill. This scene is able to resemble itself towards that concept by Jamal having learned the answer from a blind boy, people from other cultures might have neglected the boy, but because of Jamal’s cultural upbringing he was open to talking to the boy.

Section 4: Research Methods

In order to start my research study about this film, i need to follow steps one through five, (excluding step number 3) of the research model provided by James M. Henslin’s book: “Sociology A Down-To-Earth Approach”. The first step requires me to select a topic, I would want to have more knowledge of. Well, I would like to find out more about the area that Jamal Malik is from, because that would give me a better understanding of the type of society Jamal is a part of. Now, the second step of this model asks me to define the issue i am wanting to learn about, for me that is, having a better understanding of the crime that takes place in Dharavi, Mumbai. Skipping from step two, to four has us forming our own hypothesis, or what we imagine will be the conclusion to our research study, along with including operational definitions. My hypothesis would be that since the Malik brothers hometown is often labeled as “the world’s largest slum”, it has a great deal of crime that takes place; the operational definition which would accompany my hypothesis would be that since a slum is often referred to as being inhabited by the less fortunate, those individuals still need the basic necessities to live, which is why turning to crime would benefit them and that is why my hypothesis sees a high occurrence of crime being present in Dharavi. The final step that we will be pursuing in the research model is, choosing an appropriate method of research; this is crucial since, it’s how we decide to gather our data. Surveying the people of Dharavi would be my research method. I chose to survey because I can then proceed to find a rough estimate of how much of Dharavi’s society is impacted by crime. The advantages of this would be, getting a direct and plausible answers from credible sources. Disadvantages could be, getting falsified info from some or all of my sources, or having a risk of not getting any info at all. These disadvantages can be minimized by me treating my surveyors with respect and making them feel like they’re in a safe and comfortable space. I could have also chosen participation observation as my researching method. The pros it would entail would be, not needing to ask others of their experience or the fear of being lied to. However there would still be cons to this method, like me being the person that is robbed or any other dangerous crime. Participant Observation could grant me new info, like first hand experience at either viewing crime being done towards someone, or me being the victim of another crime. I would basically get a more personal look and interface with the criminal activity taking place in Dharavi.

Conclusion

The social influences that I believe were most prominent in shaping not only Jamal, but his brother, Salim, and there “third musketeer”, Latika; were them wanting to escape global stratification. All of them wanted different lives than the ones they had, I can wholeheartedly say that because if you look at each of their lives, it’s not an ideal life that any individuals would want. For example Latika was forced into a child labor ring, Salim lived a guilty life of crime, and Jamal loses his entire family. The important thing though, is how the unfortunate upbringing these three orphans had built them to go against their societies caste system and prevail. Examples of this come from, Jamal winning millions of rupees, Salim leaving the criminal life by courageously saving his brothers life by sacrificing himself, and by Latika never giving up to be rejoiced with her life partner. This definitely made me think about how sociology plays such a large role in everyone's lives, it doesn’t matter who you are, because everyone falls under a specific sociological spectrum.