Q: How does one escape the slum?
A) Religion
B) Power
C) Family
D) Money
The answer is E) Enlightened culture. Slumdog follows the misfortune of Indian children and adults for whom life is a trick question. A) Religion is shown false right away as the children are orphaned in a religious war. Its easy to walk away thinking Christians wouldn't kill this way in the name of religion - course that's definitely not historically true and debatable in the present. B) Power is shown culminating in the taking of a child's eyes in the pursuit of dominance. It is C, D and the hidden E that occupy much of the film - join me below...
C) Family loyalty is represented by the older brother. The elder brother is willing to risk and eventually give up his life for his sibling. Why isn't devotion to family enough to save him from the slum? The scene where he refuses to let a little girl come in from the rain shows his limits. Family for him is the hierarchy and exclusiveness of a wolf pack. An outside girl can only join by being completely subservient to him or whomever is the leader of the pack. Answer C) though is not given the short shrift of A) and B). Jamal's brother helps him out of the slum and Jamal wants a family. Devotion to family is necessary but insufficient.
Also necessary but not sufficient is answer D) money. The movie is full of rich men whose riches failed to release them from the slum (two of them killed by Jamal's brother). The most interesting of these is the game show host. Jamal knows the game show host's answer is a lie - money alone cannot save you from the slum. For the host life is an empty quiz; you are lucky or you are not; you know the answers or not; winning and losing is based solely on social class or ability to cheat or entertain the system - no higher morality. Sergeant Srinivas's good job also fails to lift him from the slum. From the web it seems Srinivas means "abode of good fortune or prosperity". But the torture scene shows him mired in a hell of moral decline and ignorance. He spends the night talking with Jamal because his story lifts him for a moment from the middle age non-civilization in which he lives.
Answer E) is not culture - without the enlightenment culture won't get you anywhere. Latika, whose name means "elegant", is taught Indian dance but learns it only as a commodity to be sold. She is unable to muster the self respect necessary to run away by herself. Enlightenment only comes from devotion to culture for its own sake - for its ability to bridge the divide between one human and another. Jamal, whose name means "beauty", has an interest in the girl that is prepubescent - she is the third musketeer (a story in which the main character also spends all of his time trying to save women), a fellow soldier in humanity's war to save itself - "one for all, all for one".
Jamal's dedication to culture is beyond money as seen in the lengths he is willing to go for an autograph. Even as a Taj tour guide he goes above and beyond money in his attempt make a cultural connection and help truly explain India. Reaching out to and helping humans allow him to rise above the slum without looking down on it (construction scene - incidentally the construction workers I saw in India lived in thatched tents and bathed in the open in front of them). Whether saving the girl, showing the real India, taking a co-workers station for him, learning about foreign lands or giving $100 to a blind beggar they are all answers in the question of how to escape the slum. But don't get too high minded; they all involved money as well (maybe even he learned English to try to get a job in the call center? Slumdogs don't speak English).
The message for America is not so much to stop all pursuit of wealth but that we must pursue enlightened culture as well or risk becoming a third world country. A war for oil, Guantanamo Bay, an idiot elected because he's a cowboy, a consumer society - all of this low culture threatens us with the slum no matter how much it is sold with the call for security. Jamal's brother Salim? - a complicated character apparently Salim means "peace" but Saalim means "security".