Shhh! Secret Life of a Princess

Random, provoking thoughts from a self-confessed princess :: with focus on motivational learnings from the media. I hope to inspire everyone to be the best they can be

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire - The Book vs Movie



I am so glad I read the book 'Slumdog Millionaire' or the original title being 'Q&A' before I watched the movie. It was one of those books that I could not put down. I was trapped from the first sentence: 'I won a Billion Rupee from a game show and got captured because of that'. I have always been impressed with Indian writers and movie producers in their ability to come up with stories with the most magnificent twists like M. Night Syamalan's 'The Sixth Sense' which then introduced the same concept of twists in a lot of other movies. 'Slumdog Millionaire' did the same amazing unexpected twist and I am so utterly dissapointed that they did not include that same twist in that movie! In fact the movie was so far from the book that I feel like I am watching a whole different story altogether! All Danny Boyle, the producer did was take the concept of the story of a boy living in the slums of Mumbai winning 1 Billion rupees from a game show and did a movie with the same concept of reiterating his life story through each and every answers he gave.

So, here, I will give a blow by blow comparison between the book and the movie without giving out too many spoilers! Go read the book! Even though I wonder if I will feel the same if I had watched the movie first. Yes, I will still remain: The book is BETTER!












The book
The movie
Has 12 chapters which consist of a blow by blow story or encounter that contributed to the answer to each question.
Showed less than 12 questions which is actually a shortened version of the 'Who wants to be a billionaire game!
Each chapter started with his life story that led to him knowing the answer to the question and you will be compelled to guess which question will be formed from the life story while you are reading it. I actually guessed one question right and so proud of it!
The story and question mingled among one another leading to me being confused if the story actually contributed to the answer only to find out that some are meant to be only a story.
The name of the protagonist is Ram Mohamad Thomas and there is a chapter that entails how his name which consist of three races was given.
The name has been changed to Jamal Malik which is an easier to remember name but less significant with no background to the origins of the name.
Ram was an orphan from the start with his life story being how he was transferred from one orphan home to a priest to a begger agent, etc.
Jamal has a mother who was killed during a protest and he is led to run away to the house of a beggar agent.
Ram and Salim are best of friends.
Jamal and Salim are brothers.
There are so many more female characters in the book adding to the colors of the stories.
There is just 1 female character who is very very pretty and suitable for the character potrayed (IMHO).
No mockery of Indian slang. The book is written by an Indian after all!Consist of the mockery of an Indian slang: "Maybe it is written, no?" The movie is directed by a foreigner after all!


Despite all the differences, fortunately there is one similarity between the book and the movie which I feel was the most important part of the movie: the ending. Will the male and female protagonists end up togther? You have to read the book AND/OR watch the movie to know. Now, let's laugh at Eyeris' funny version of the movie not-review.

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1 Bowed to the princess

  • At 12:08 PM, Blogger Eva Cherney said…

    I found the movie a very pale reflection of a very good book. In the book Ram does so many good acts to change people's lives around him. In the movie it is only about him. Salim turns into the bad guy with a heart of gold? I thought I would see a movie not effected by Hollywood, but obviously I was wrong.

    Nice chart, but there are just too many differences to even fit.

     

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