Slumdog Millionaire

Whenever someone asks me what my all-time favorite movie is, Slumdog Millionaire is always the first movie that comes to mind. I can easily remember the first time I watched this movie. It wasn't in the movie theaters, or in my living room on my TV, I watched it on my 10-inch wide screen Dell laptop through the use of online streaming. (Okay, it may or may not have been completely legal at the time...) You see even though I was watching it on my laptop I still wanted the whole effect of being in a movie theater, so I turned off the lights in my room, sat next to a large bucket of freshly popped popcorn and cranked the volume on my laptop to the loudest it could go. It was then when I was drawn in by the initial scene of an Indian man as a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Then from there it cut to his life as a child living in the slums and the obstacles he reached along the way which, as a result, led him to be on a contestant on the famous show, only to be one question away from becoming the epitome of a Rags to Riches story.

I guess it's true; Everyone loves a Rags to Riches story. it doesn't matter if every movie that uses this archetype basically follows the same storyline is fairly predictable, everyone still pays money to go and see it. Doesn't matter if it's the same story, we keep on going back to the movie theatre to experience the same feeling of watching this certain type of movie. It makes us feel good and escape from our present day issues. This is why movies continues to produce revenue because the average people across America need a place to escape and fall into a false reality in which they wish was their actual lives. Not only does this movie include a Rags to Riches story, it includes a "forbidden love" storyline in which the main character, Jamal Malik, from the beginning (since he was a young boy to be specific) was chasing after the love of his life, Latika, but at every point in his life in which he finds her something is preventing him from being with her. Of course, in the end, like any other movie, he gets the girl, the money, and the "Dream". And it is for this Slumdog Millionaire is my favorite movie. I'm a sucker for happy endings and I did cry at the end of this movie not only because I was happy but I was sad it ended. For some reason, in those two hours I thought I was apart their lives but as a stranger looking on from a distance. Once it was over It was back to reality and I didn't necessarily enjoy that feeling. This is why whenever a similar type of movie comes out I go see it because I want to experience the same feeling i felt throughout watching Slumdog Millionaire.