Slumdog millionaire comparison essay: book and the movie

Student’s Name: Course: Professor: Date Due: Who Wants to Win a Billion? Q&A was Swarup’s book, which was later adopted into a movie titled Slumdog Millionaire. The book is set in the Indian context to depict social stratification, poverty, prejudices, injustices and class struggles miring the Indian people. The lead character is Ram Mohammad Thomas a poor 18 year old teen brought up in a parentless home who manages to tackle 12 difficult questions in a show dubbed “Who Wants to Win a Billion?” and this sets a stage for conflict and drama in the tale. Both the book and the movie bear similitude in relation to unfolding sequence of events from beginning to the end. Slumdog Millionaire however deviates from the course of the plot by representing eschewed authenticity to the original story as portrayed in the book. Some facts are embellished and others totally repealed to shape perceptions and themes of the story. In both Q&A and Slumdog Millionaire events from Ram's past act as platform for his success; when given opportunity to participate in a very tough quiz his life lessons educe vital answers he needed most.[Thesis] Slumdog Millionaire is an engrossing fast-paced cliffhanger revolving around the life of Jamal a young man born and brought up in slums. As the story commences the audience is confronted by the daunting scene of Jamal being tortured by the police for purportedly cheating in a TV show dubbed “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” The crime he committed was knowing- too- much. The commentator Prem Kumar tells Jamal “Final question for twenty million rupees, and he's smiling. I guess you know the answer.” (Boyle, 2009).The society did not expect a slumdog to be well versed with the matters being addressed. The plot peals in the modern day, as the questions explored offer a link between Jamal’s past and his present. Jamal’s was mired with challenges and difficulties especially when his mother died leaving him and his brother to fend for themselves and make tough choices to shape their future. Jamal’s awful youth life and subsequent suffering become his lifeline and saving grace by providing answers to the questions in his expedition. Q&A is a clever book, ordered in into a strict sequence, the chapters flow gracefully although the author starts the tale by giving a prologue, which allows the reader to peak into the life of Ram through first-person narration. From chapter one Vikas Swarup explores the life of Ram Mohammed and the book culminates the main character converses with his lawyer Smita. After watching a taped footage, the lawyer is now quite able to understand how the poor man from the slums was able to offer answers to the questions presented. Swarup’s story is remarkably simple, easy to follow narrated with simple language. To some extend this becomes his undoing when it comes to the character dialogue, which is poorly developed in the book as compared to the dialogues used in the movie. What the characters say in the book comes out all wrong and contrived, he does not let his characters converse freely. This does not however, hamper the progression of the epic tale of from-grass-to-grace, as Ram overcomes difficult impediments such as growing without parents, witnessing his mother’s murder committing murders to barely escape the spread-out hands of some unjust and deceitful Indians. It is through the tale that the author is able to depict the class divide in the Indian context. The very poor are not supposed to be brainy they are supposed to use their hands “After all, what business did a penniless waiter have to be participating in a brain quiz? The brain is not an organ we are authorized to use. We are supposed to use only our hands and legs.” (Vikas, 2005). The structure of Q&A weaves back and forth portraying Ram’s life through his life stories. The author offers a backdrop to the story by offering a preface, which allows the writer to elucidate into the past events of the writer to ensure that the reader is able to grasp the reason why Ram was innocent creating the all-more reason for him to win the billions. From the book, one is able to pick out the salient theme that luck is created by what we have, when preparation meets opportunity history is made. The author tries to bring out the essence of attaining greatness by portraying the concept that class differences can be surmounted when an individual is prepared and gets the opportunity to exercise their acumen. “And for the first time in my life, I saw something new reflected in the eyes that saw me. Respect. It taught me a very valuable lesson.”(Vikas, 2005). The only way an Indian can earn respect is by having power and power is only accessible to those who have money. The conclusion of the story is impressive, considering that the success and greatness achieved in the tale are only achieved through the rigorous knowledge of the main character. Both the book and the movie explore themes of poverty, despair, crime and social injustices but the approach of these themes is varied. The movie embraces poverty as the anchor through which the lead character draws solutions to his life problems. For instance, while tackling the TV show questions Ram applies life experiences to answer the question challenges. Moreover, his garnered resilience through slum life enables him to withstand accusations and criminal implications after winning the TV show competition. In the book, the theme of poverty, pain and despair is created to educe the social imbalances associated with the Indian life the audience gets to feel the pain implicit to the slum life. The author however demonstrates that every cloud has an unseen benefit after the poor poorly educated Ram wins a lot of money in a TV show irrespective of his poor upbringing and depravity. Under normal circumstances when books are converted to movies, a lot of differences ...