Genre - Slumdog Millionaire

Genre - Slumdog Millionaire

The genre of Slumdog Millionaire could be considered to be a romantic drama. This is because there are a lot of conventions that are typical of that of a romantic drama, such as the typical heterosexual relationship. Some of the themes are conventional too of a romantic drama film, like the theme of chasing something that you once had, that slipped away, a loved one for example. Jamal is desperate to find Latika, a girl he once had, and is so desperate he proved it by going on he most popular game show in the country. We are constantly reminded that this is a romantic drama film, due to the shot of Latika in slow motion, where she appears in yellow, and the background is completely blurred out, making Latika stand out, signifying that Latika is the only thing that Jamal thinks about, typical of a romantic drama, where the male protagonist is usually the one who lusts after the female. Speaking of the two main characters, Propp’s theory could be applied to them. Jamal definitely acts as a ‘hero’, as he is the one who really saves Latika from the hands of Javad, Latika is the princess, as she is the one who the hero is looking for, she is so pretty that Jamal is preparing to go around the country for her, while Prem, or maybe Salim, act as the ‘Villain’ of the film, as Prem is the one who tried to sabotage Jamals chance of winning the quiz, while Salim takes Latika from Jamal twice.

Slumdog Millionaire’s narrative is the most unconventional factor in the entirety of the film, it maybe argued. In the way it is presented, with the interrogation, then quiz, then flashback to child, this is quite a unique way of telling the story. But it works much better than a conventional romantic drama, because with the child scenes appearing, we see why they are important to the plot, as they all refer back to the questions. The theme of destiny is reinforced, the audience knows the difficulty of finding each other is, and shows that destiny is the thing that is reuniting them. At the start, and end, the questions of ‘How does Jamal find Latika’, to which one of the answer is ‘Destiny’. This theme propels the narrative, and always reassures the audience that Jamal will eventually find Latika, and reunite to make a happy ending, typical of most romantic drama’s. 

Slumdog Millionaire uses visual signifiers of romantic drama’s, such as the close up shots referenced earlier of Latika, the scene where the two finally meet and share a ‘kiss’. The close up shots show how important Latika is to Jamal, it shows that she is he only thing that he hunks about and nothing else in the world matters. It allows the audience to get a shot of her body and face, usual signifiers to show how pretty a female princess is in he film. The audience don’t realise at first, but this is in fact the only POV shot in the entire film. This allows Latika to stare into the camera, allowing the audience to see how beautiful she really is, and to see if she is really worth fighting for, and worth travelling everywhere to find her again. When the two do meet and share the kiss at the end, this signifies the end of all three narratives, as they have all been building to this point in time. As this is the only kiss is the entire film too, it does how important it is, and signifies the start of a relationship, and he start to a happy life. It’s also a clever nod to Bollywood too, kissing is somewhat banned in Bollywood films, to give the feel of Bollywood, Boyle decided to freeze-frame when they do kiss, and snap it to show it like a picture. 

This is one of many Bollywood conventions in the film. Bollywood has a list of criteria that often appear in their films and many of these appear alongside the ‘single kiss’ idea. These include kidnapping, love triangle and corruption, evident in all of the film. 

Overall, Slumdog Millionaire has a lot of roots in both the romantic drama genre, while also giving a few subtle/obvious hints to a Bollywood genre. The romantic genre seems to have more influence over the generic conventions, however many of the plots in the film are definitely traditional of Bollywood, like kidnapping, corruption for example, so it could be determined that Slumdog Millionaire is a hybrid genre, with a mix of romance, drama and Bollywood.