Narrative Structure throughout Slumdog Millionaire

Narrative structure throughout Slumdog Millionaire is unique, in that it offers three separate narratives for us to watch play out. Typically even a film with two parallel narratives is considered unique, and so Boyle has here quite obviously used an extremely unique technique.

      Though the movie is non-linear, all three of these narratives eventually meet at the end of the film. One of these is Jamal as a young boy, and the problems that he encounters up until when he becomes a grown-man. This narrative takes place in three different age groups, approximately including 8, 13 and 18. These sections of the film act as an answer for the questions presented to us in another section of the film; Jamal on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? However, some parts throughout the younger years of Jamal and Latika hold a restricted narrative. We are unaware of events that are happening between the flashbacks, and therefore it is only a very small area of their lives we are seeing. Therefore, the clips that we do see hold a significance, as the viewer recognises this must be important for us to be seeing them. Boyle has somewhat of an artistic license in the sense that every question Jamal is presented with, there has been an event in his life providing him with the correct answer. This is presented to us through flashbacks, therefore making it easier to identify with Jamal, and making us somewhat 'route' for him to win, as we are omniscient to everything that he has encountered in his life. 

       The third storyline we see is one we consider as being 'real time', or the events that are most current in the film; this is Jamal's interrogation in the police-station. The lighting throughout this part of the film is tinted yellow, making the images appear distorted, as well as signifying further that this part of the movie is different from all others.

       The film is also able to define under a portmanteau storyline. These are "a collection of inter-related stories in a single vessel", also offering a sense of experimentation and playfulness. Slumdog possess all of these elements, as well as many more characteristics including flashbacks, short sequences all sharing a common incident. Slumdog can easily be split up into the twenty-five questions of the chat-show, and therefore each of these questions has it's own short storyline as well as a conclusion.