Analysis Of The Film 'Slumdog Millionaire'

1. Post-development is the ideology that development is merely the manifestation of the Western World’s hegemony over the rest of the world. Meaning that the notion of development is the influence of the Western World’s ideals changing the cultures and economies of autonomies elsewhere. Post-development theorists view the concept of a Third World and what the characteristics of such a nation would hold is an invention which the more powerful use to exert power by means of that nation and or benefit from. The more powerful actors can then justify their actions through the definition of development. (Culp, 2014). The movie “Avatar” shows several key post-development arguments. During the movie there is a scene in which Parker Selfridge, who …show more content…
The film “Slumdog Millionaire” does provide an accurate portrayal of slums in the developing world. In the movie, the slums were depicted as narrow, crowded, and not very sanitary as seen through the filth on the children’s clothes and faces. Slums in fact are unhygienic in which they can often be closely connected to sewage systems. People living in the slums also are among the least likely to receive proper healthcare, which contributes to the high mortality rate of children (Kenny, 2012). The take home message of this movie could be that you grow in part by how you were raised and your life choices. Each of the three children, Jamal, Salim and Latika all took very different paths but were all effected by the culture of the slums. This film does do a good job of raising awareness for children such as Jamal. The movie reveals the hardships children go through. For example, the kids often had to find their own means of finding income which instituted working at a young age. Lakita was forced into the sex trade, and was “owned” by multiple gang lords. Salim also became affiliated with gangs, and moved up the ranks in order to make a living. The children were employed in the only ways they were commonly exposed to. Areas of slums are often run by divisions of gangs. Gangs often held monopolies of vital resources such as water or electricity (Jacobsen, 2007). It would make sense that young individuals who grow up in a community in which members of gang hold power, that they too would see this as a fitting lifestyle as well. The children in this film faced poverty, moreover “Poverty as Capability Deprivation”. In this sense poverty is described as an inability to live a respectable lifestyle. Through this definition poverty is more fluid and applicable (Sen, 2000). Jamal, Salim, and Latika were limited because of the culture they were born into. With no education, the young individuals had to make life choices and their own and often through experience. The movie