This novel's setting commences in a jail cell, where Ram is being kept due to all his correct answers in a quiz show. He is accused for fraud, because the producers don't have enough money to pay him. The main character Ram is a teenage orphan from the slums in Bombay, he experienced no proper education, and the life has given him all the answers in order to win the prize. After all, the story is about the fight between the good and evil.
As you may notice, I have more knowledge about the movie, and thus focusing on writing about that.
The plot in the movie
The story begins with the young boy, Jamal Malik, making it to the final question of the Indian version of "who wants to be a millionaire?"(In medias res) In the next scene Jamal gets tortured by a policeman. They think he's a cheat. How else can a slumdog like him get to the final question? The policemen beat him up, and knock him out with electric shock.
After all the torture Jamal gets a chance to explain himself. He tells them the story of how he grows up in the slum with his brother Salim. Each story reveals the key to the answer of the questions he's asked in the show. The scenes in the film switch between the police station, the TV studio, and his life from seven till eighteen.
In Jamal's flashbacks you see how he loses his mother during an attack from anti-Muslims. The two boys run away, and have to make it on their own after their mother's death. They meet the girl Latika, who Jamal falls in love with. The three meets the gangster Maman while living in the trash heaps. He is a gangster making children collect money for him. He plans to blind the kids with acid because blind children make more money. Salim warns Jamal of Maman's plan just in time, and the three kids flees. Jamal and Salim jumps on a train, but Latika didn't make it, so she is left behind. After this, the two boys make a living by travelling on top of trains, selling loot and working as unofficial guides.
Jamal never forgets Latika, and after some time they manage to locate her, and goes back to rescue her. Maman has raised Latika as a prostitute, when they tries to save her, Maman intrudes, and in the fight Salim pulls a gun out and shoots Maman. By shooting Maman, Salim gets a job with Javed, a rival crime gangster. Salim goes back to the room where the three are staying, and order his brother to leave so he can have sex with Latika. Salim draws his gun at Jamal to make him leave, and Latika tells him to go, sacrificing herself to save him.
Jamal is now on his own, and years later he is working as a tea server at a call centre. One day he decides to search the database, at the call centre, for Salim and Latika. He finds Salim, and goes to meet him. He is not able to forget about Latika, so he asks his brother about her. This annoys Salim, and he tells him that she's "long gone". Salim finds out that Latika is Javed's mistress and goes to his house to take her with him. She tells him to forget about her, but instead Jamal tells her that he's going to wait for her everyday at five o'clock at the CST station.
One day Latika comes to the station, but she is recaptured by Javel's men, and after this Jamal loses contact with her. Jamal decide to try out for the TV show "who wants to be a millionaire, because he knows Latika will be watching.
After telling this story to the cops, they realize that's he's not in the show for the money, and allows him to go back to the studio answering the final question.
Both Latika and Salim are watching the show. Salim probably get bad conscience for his earlier behavior, he gives Latika keys to his car, and his mobile phone. Salim locks himself in to the bathroom, and fills the bathtub full of cash and sits in it.
Jamal does's now the answer of the last question, so he uses the "call a friend" lifeline to call Salim. Latika reaches the phone just in time. She doesn't know the answer of the question (the name of the third musketeer), but she tells Jamal that she is safe. Jamal guesses the right answer and wins 20 000 rupees.
Javel has now discovered what Salim have done, and he and his men brakes down the bathroom door, and shoots him. Before he dies, Javel says "god is great"
Jamal and Latika meets at the CST station and share a kiss. In the beginning of the film it's asked how it was possible for Jamal to answer the question. The correct answer is "D- it's written" Jamals story is his destiny.
In this film you see that India is a country with big differences between rich and poor. When Jamal is in the show the host is making fun of him, and the audience is laughing at him. They think it's impossible for an uneducated slumdog two answer the hard questions in the show. You can see that a poor person is less worth than a rich. The way he is treated on the police station wouldn't have happened with a richer person with status.
It's big different between Jamal and his brother Salim. Salim is sacrificing his friends and family to have money and power, while Jamal is more a person of love. He never forgets about Latika and cares more about her then money. Even though Salim had more money and a better place to live, Jamal was happier. In the end salim makes amend for his behavior, he has now finally understood that his brother is more important than money. He makes up for his behavior by helping Latika, and therefore he dies relived, saying "god is great"
You can say that, by helping Latika, he helped himself.
Jamal didn't care if he won the money or not. All that mattered for him was that he finally could be with Latika. In a world where money seems to be the most important, love conquers.
The book:
Q&A's structure has a very nice pattern, and all the events are divided into clear chapters. Something that's remarkable about the author, is that the book is written in a simple manner, which makes it easy to follow the story. After all Q&A is a story about a hero, who defeats the most difficult moments and obstacles imaginable in life. For instance witnessing murders, growing up without biological parents, and generally live a life in poverty.
As you can see, I have chosen to write more in depth about the movie instead of the book, because I generally enjoyed the movie a lot more than the book. I don't know what I would suggest to people, whether to watch the movie or read the book. You should do what you feel is more interesting.
