Slumdog Millionaire - Appeals

There are many appeals of Slumdog Millionaire, one of these is the typical expectations of the generic romantic drama. These have been met by the conventions of the genre, two people meet in a relationship, they love each other, but become distant, and spend the reminder of the film searching for each other, with a happy ending. This is extremely conventional in the romantic drama genre, and the film will have met the expectations of the audience, typically a Mainstreamer, as their expectations are met. However, this isn’t to say that expectations weren’t challenged in the film. In the scene at the train station where Jamal and Latika look set to meet each other for the first time as adults, the romantic music, slow motion movement and slow editing with a POV shot, the audience expected that they would finally meet. However, the expectations are challenged by the fact that they don’t met, despite the usual conventions of a typical romantic scene, and Salim jumps in to kidnap Latika, and return her to Javed, injuring her in the process. This injury is then later seen at the ending of the film. This could be considered an appeal, the cinematography of this whole scene makes the audience believe that the moment is about to happen, only for a huge twist in the narrative to occur. 

Another way that the film is appealing is that the audience seems to get the indication that the film is an Indie, giving a a new dynamic to a typical romantic genre. It isn’t the typical ‘Grease’ or ‘Titanic’, however the Indian set of Jamal and Latika, who come from similar backgrounds and social class. It isn’t the typical ‘white American’ trying to find a stunning Princess, the simplicity is what keeps it fresh, and appealing. With this Indian setting, this empathises the themes and adds to the weight of the relationship of Jamal and Latika. This love is obvious, India is a country that is populated by 1 billion people, so for Jamal to actively search for Latika, creates an atmosphere that is intense and builds suspension. The last question where Jamal rings his brother, and Latika is watching, that phone ring, one that is so common around the world, allows he audience to relate to the characters. Every audience member has at some point been looking for their phone that was ringing, and with her running frantically searching for the phone in the car, the audience is left to wonder whether she will have enough time to get to the phone, which creates suspension and increases the intensity of the film. 

This film appeals to both the mainstreamer and the explorer as the character types are extremely relatable and allow the audience to personally identify with the characters, however the alternative nature of the film and the gritty realism of it attracted the explorer as well. Jamal could be compared to being an underdog with an extremely powerful past. His character development makes him who he is as he begins as a victim of interrogation, however he soon starts to take control of his own life. At the start, Jamal was seen as a child, who had an emotionless face, and Prem mocked him countless amount of times. As the show moves on, Jamal starts to crack jokes, and even smile, showing signs of character development. Although the film was for both the mainstream and the explorer, the posters in which the production companies used were slightly bizarre. A feel good movie should be happy, and have comedy and family friendly scenes, rather than seeing children being blinded by spoons. In the US, the poster is clearly more for the Explorer, obvious by the characters looking away for each other in dark lighting, while the UK had bright lights, with confetti surrounding the pair, who are together, obviously suited to the Mainstreamer. 

Overall, the film was excellent at appealing to an audience. The typical conventions of a romantic drama are there, with also big twists in the narrative, with their being 3 huge storylines all being connected together. The film is exciting, but also gripping, the scene with the children is hard to watch due to how violent it is, and leaves the audience left to think ‘Does that really happen in India?’ Boyle is clever by combining features of a Mainstreamer and explorer film. This combination widens the target audience, an will appeal to a lot more people.