Slumdog Millionaire - Narrative

Slumdog Millionaire is told with a non linear narrative structure using multiple flashback sequences ad a parallel narrative. The movie is set during the interrogation scene and  the scenes of Jamal's younger years and his time on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire are the flashbacks, because of this the audience are thrown into the film without knowledge of what is going on and have to figure the story out for themselves. Although the technique is used often and the plot is quite simple and easy to follow the way it is used at the start may be confusing at first as the audience would be unsure which narrative comes at what time and which narrative is the primary one, the use of three actors for characters help this as it easy to distinguish one narrative from the other by identifying the ages of the characters.

The use of multiple narratives and flashbacks may have been used by Boyle to reflect the themes of fate and destiny as at first for the audience and Jamal things seem confusing and lacking of any real order but eventually as the story progresses and Jamal comes closer and closer to finding Latika we see there is a plan, a kind of cosmic order that brings everything together in the end. The flashbacks could have also been used to link into the themes of true love and represent that Jamal is stuck in the past and only when he finds Latika again can he truly move on with his life as it is only near the end do the narratives line up and we are just shown the present events signifying Jamals letting go of the past and his new future with Latika.

This technique is also useful because it helps the audience to identify with the characters as they have seen them from such a young and and seeing them grow up they form a stronger connection and root for them more and they may have if just thrown into their lives at age eighteen, it also gives the audience a deeper understanding of the characters as they can see how their lives have shaped and what made them the people they are today, this makes their decisions and actions in the present scenes more relevant as we understand the things they have been through and what drives them to do what they do.