Topic > God Rama in Slumdog Millionaire

One of the scenes that most attracted the public's attention in the film Slumdog Millionaire, a film directed by Danny Boyle, is the scene in which the boy painted blue appears wearing and standing as God Rama. The film won eight academic awards. It tells the story of eighteen-year-old boy, Jamal Malik, an orphan from one of the largest slums in Mumbai called Dharavi. Jamal Malik, when looking for his love, signs up for one of the famous American television programs called “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” in Mumbai to win twenty million rupees. No one managed to win the competition, not even the educated ones, except Jamal Malik. For this reason, the police are annoyed that an uneducated slum can answer all the questions and arrested Jamal Malik. He answers the questions by remembering situations he faced as a child. He gained amazing experience in his life while growing up in the slums of Mumbai. The metaphor behind the scene and the film reflects Mumbai's social problems such as politics, poverty and ethnic fear. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThrough the analysis of the scene where the boy painted blue appears in the film, this essay explains how in this particular scene the problem of Mumbai's identity, ethnic violence and prejudice against Muslims are reflected. The scene begins with two Muslim boys from the slums splashing water into the river. They are Jamal Malik and his brother Salim. The mother is washing clothes not far from them. The mother washes the clothes bending towards the river. She hears a very loud voice coming from the other side. When he turns around, the place is surrounded by Hindu mob chasing innocent Muslim citizens. Then, he panics and shouts in a low voice to his poor children. He doesn't run to escape rather he saves his children by sacrificing his life. This is the moment Jamal and Salim are separated from their mother forever. She is hit with a rod by the Hindu mob and then dies. Jamal and Salim see when their mother is shot and start running away to protect themselves. They run through the crowded place as people hit each other and Hindus throw fire at Muslims. Not sure what would happen next, when they flee among the people fighting each other, they meet a magical boy, painted blue, dressed as the god Rama. Create some magical horror here. The audience is worried about them if the magic will burn them, kill them, or magically destroy them. They immediately stop running as if magic is holding them back. They swallow their breath and stare at the magic. Looks like they're going to start the violence with the boy painted blue. For the moment they forget the Hindus who chase them. The boy painted blue is confidently raising his left hand to the sky. He seems brave enough to destroy all the Muslims of Mumbai. Jamal and Salim stare at him and see that he is holding a bow and arrow in his right hand. Since Jamal and Salim are Muslims and think he will kill them, they start running away from him even more. Now, the flashback shifts to the TV show where Jamal is asked a question. The question says, “In depictions of God Rama, is it known what he holds in his right hand?” Jamal replied, “D. a bow and arrow. The questioner says, “You are absolutely right. Jamal answers this question by remembering the blue-painted boy he met the day his mother was killed. He remembered that day not because he loved or hated the Hindu people, but because it was the day he saw his mother for the last time. This is the scene where the mob kills the Muslims who arrive with a boy painted blue symbolizing their God and Jamal loses his mother. The reason why the boy painted blue isappeared in this particular scene is that, to demonstrate that ethnic violence between Muslims and Hindus has increased become very serious. THE Hindus have created great tension among the Muslims. They chased Muslims out of their homes by threatening to be killed if they did not leave Mumbai. They want Muslims to leave Mumbai. Appadurai in his book Spectral Housing and Urban Cleansing writes: “The deliberate effort to terrorize the Muslims of Bombay, to attack their kiosks, to burn their shops and homes, to Hinduize their public spaces through violent ritual innovations, and to burn and mutilate their can hardly be seen as a public policy solution to Bombay's housing problems” (649). This is one of the proofs that Hindus want to defend their land by creating violence against Muslims. They want to Hinduise Mumbai. This is strictly against people living in Mumbai who worship any other religion than Hinduism. They created public terror and confronted Muslims with the message that there was no space for them and that they would be hunted down and killed if they did not leave Mumbai. Several people have migrated to Mumbai, especially Muslims. This created congestion and ethnically mixed people. This resulted in ethnic fear among Muslims and Hindus. Hindus want to make Mumbai an “ethnically clean city” (Appadurai, 645). They don't want Mumbai to be ethnically diverse to preserve their local ethnicity, Hinduism. Their intention is to make their land “the land of the Hindus” (629), a place free of Muslims. They want to maintain and inherit to the next generation their ethnic identity based on God Rama. They consider God Rama as the creator of their land, Mumbai. If we pay close attention to this scene, we can see that it is intended to attract the audience's attention by controlling the sound to make the audience focus on the moment the boy appears. When Jamal and Salim's mother calls them upon seeing Hindu rioters, the audio was in slow motion. The moment the mother is hit, the sound becomes chaotic until the boys see the boy painted blue. Instantly, the kids see the boy painted blue and the sound becomes slow. I think the Hindu crowd brings the blue painted boy whose style of wearing and standing is like God Rama to show their dominance and superiority of their God and ethnic identification. Ethnic fear between Hindus and Muslims has created great tension between them. Hindus fear that their identity will be dominated or mixed with Muslims. Their reaction against globalization has become serious. To protect their ethnic identity from the invasion they started an anti-Muslim movement, as we can see in the film. Appadurai in his book Disjunction and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy, writes: “The central problem of global interactions today is the tension between cultural homogenization and heterogeneization” (295). This is a proof of why the movement of people like Muslims in Mumbai is opposed by Hindus. Cultural homogenization occurs when local cultures are dominated by exotic ones, while cultural heterogeneization occurs when different cultures coexist creating diversity. Hindus do not want their culture to be homogenized or heterogeneized. Culture and religion are strongly linked. People who belong to the same culture have the same religion. In the case of Hindus, the reason why they do not want their culture to be either homogenized or heterogeneized is because they want to defend their religion. Overall, the film depicts different messages. It shows social problems such as poverty and politics. Besides that, the.