Insights from Slum dog Millionaire

One confession: after the euphoria of the Indian movie revolution in the early eighties, when we were kids; watching the “Shole”, “Shakti”, “MARD”, “Yer van dera”e.t.c. I lost the Indian movie appeal. American movies top my collection list now, forget those Nigerian movies- never a fan. Especially when I have a multimedia project to work on, I love a movie playing in the background, as a result of this, there’s hardly any series movie I’ve not watched.

The staggering accumulation of 6 Oscar awards by the film, Slum Dog Millionaire caught my attention. It was about the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who was one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” When the show took a break from the episode, the anchor got the police to was promptly arrested arrested and interrogated on why a boy from the slums was so “brilliant” as to be able to answer the most difficult ones but could not answer the basic simple questions posed to him on the hot seat.

Jamil takes his interrogators through the maze of his live, from living and playing in the midst of the squalor where he lived along with his mother and brother, and how his various experiences exposed him to the solutions coincidentally being asked on the hot seat. The plot gradually unfolded itself into a story of love and betrayal, which included his brother and Latika, the young girl he loved and lost at various stages of his life.

Your background does not mean your back must be on the ground

Anyone pricing Jamil like the child traffickers did when they caught him, his brother and Latika, are sure to under price him. Anyone looking at another’s past and judging him is sure to look foolish unless the person accepts their verdict. You may not have control of your past; your place of birth, your parents, your siblings, the kind of education you received, but then, the future has no right to catch you by surprise. It was important to note the persistence of Jamil and his brother. They made do with what they had, lived on what they could glean, and took every opportunity available for them to change their fortunes.

Though the road was tough, their condition never became the verdict.

Love may not be well dressed

Who could have thought they were going to be together after years of incidences that threw them apart. Even from when they were about four and in the midst of abject poverty and an uncertain future, they never hid their friendly love. Most of us have checklists for whom we want and how we want them to look, so if the packaging of the person is not right we won’t go for it. The best opportunities in life might come in work clothes. They may not look too nice today. The job might be frustrating, but be patient.

The pains of today might be pregnant with tomorrow’s joy.

God is the scriptwriter, we are the actors

As if he was being deliberately prepared for the moment, all things were working for him. It was almost unbelievable how his life experiences prepared him for the questions that were being asked on the show. Just like that, our lives are weaved around our personal experiences and challenges such that, how we responded to those challenges may be our saving grace tomorrow. I’ve seen great achievers tell their stories and they seem like they were in a movie. Some truth, God is the scriptwriter; we are the actors.

I remember the sign-off of the Nigerian movie super story, Super Story- we are but pencils in the hand of the creator.

Whatever you are doing today, pay day comes.

It is wrong to write anyone off, it’s wrong to maltreat others because there’s always a pay day. The people who love writing people off are cheaply escorted out of the game of life. What happens if the boy you maltreated yesterday is now in a position to determine your fate? Life cannot just be life without repercussions. Our life is divided into two faces, one consisting our sowing, the other is to receive the benefits or punishments for what we did in the first half.

In all the film was good, considering most Oscar winning awards can barely be classified as entertaining.