[photo by: arjin j title: . Licence CC]
Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle, is a movie that tells the story of the 18-year old Jamal Malik. His story is told by the questions he is ask during the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” contest. When he is asked a question he remembers a fragment of his past that is linked to the answer. Part of a stable of young thieves after their mother dies, Jamal and his brother, Salim, survive on the streets of Mumbai. The book Q & A written, Vikas Swarup, is different from the movie. In the book our protagonist is called Ram Mohammad Thomas, a young waiter who becomes the biggest quiz show winner in history, only to be sent to jail on accusations that claimed he cheated. There are multiple differences between the movie and the film, some being characters and others being the plot entirely. For example in the movie Jamal wants to win the money to save his love interest, Lakita, because she is being held hostage as a prostitute and he needs to buy her off. In the book however, he wants to win the money so that he can get revenge.
Some more differences would be when Jamal meets the love interest, which was when they were kids, but Ram meets the love interest, Nita when they were teenagers and she was already a prostitute. In the book, Ram worked for a Bollywood actress, but in the film Jamal worked in a Call Center. In the book the main character is relating the events that led to him knowing the answers to his lawyer, but in the film the protagonist is telling a cop who doesn’t believe he won. Another difference is the brother and their ages. Ram in the book is older than Salim and they are not real brothers, but in the film Jamal is younger than Salim and they are real brothers.
The stories are pretty different, but it will have the same effect as any other book that was adapted to be a movie. Everyone who read the book first will like it more, but everyone who didn’t read the book and saw the movie will say that the movie was best. I believe the book had a more realistic story, since it includes every raw detail of his life and he doesn’t sugar-coat anything. I would prefer the book since it has all the details untouched.
Eye of the Camera 