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Essay / God Rama in Slumdog Millionaire
One of the scenes that most attracted the attention of the public in the film Slumdog Millionaire, a film directed by Danny Boyle, is the scene in which the boy painted blue appears dressed and standing like God Rama. The film won eight academic awards. It tells the story of an eighteen-year-old boy, Jamal Malik, an orphan from one of the biggest slums of Mumbai called Dharavi. Jamal Malik, while looking for his love, he signs up for one of the famous American TV shows called “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” to Mumbai to earn twenty million rupees. No one could win the competition, even the most educated, except Jamal Malik. Because of this, the police are annoyed by how an uneducated slum can answer all questions and arrested Jamal Malik. He answers the questions by remembering the situations he faced as a child. He gained incredible experience in his life while growing up in the slums of Mumbai. The metaphor behind the scene and in the film reflects Mumbai's social issues such as politics, poverty and ethnic fear. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayThrough the analysis of the scene in which the boy painted blue appeared in the film, this essay explains how, in this particular scene, Mumbai's identity problem, ethnic violence and prejudice against Muslims are reflected. The scene begins with two Muslim boys from the slums splashing water in the river. They are Jamal Malik and his brother Salim. Their mother is doing laundry a few steps away from them. The mother washes the clothes while leaning towards the river. She hears a very loud voice coming from the other side. When she turns around, the place is surrounded by Hindu mobs chasing innocent Muslim citizens. Then she panics and shouts softly to her poor children. She does not run to escape, but saves her children by sacrificing her life. This is the moment when Jamal and Salim are separated from their mother forever. She is beaten with sticks by the Hindu crowd and then dies. Jamal and Salim see their mother being beaten and start running away to protect themselves. They run through the crowded square while people beat each other and Hindus throw fire at Muslims. Unsure of what would happen next when they escape through the fighting people, they encounter a magical boy painted blue, dressed as God Rama. This creates a magical horror here. The audience worries whether the magic will burn them, kill them, or magically destroy them. They immediately stop running as if magic is holding them back. They hold their breath and watch the magic. Looks like they're going to start violence with the boy painted blue. For the moment, they forget the Hindus who are pursuing them. The blue-painted boy stands confidently, raising his left hand to the sky. This seems brave enough to destroy all Muslims in Mumbai. Jamal and Salim look at him and see that he is holding a bow and arrow in his right hand. Since Jamal and Salim are Muslims thinking he is going to kill them, they start to run away from him even more. Now the flashback shifts to the TV show where Jamal is asked a question. The question says: “In representations of God Rama, what is he holding in his right hand? Jamal replied, “D. a bow and arrows.” » The person asking the question replies: “You are absolutely right. » Jamal answers this question when he remembers the boy painted blue he met the day his mother was killed. He remembers this day not becausewhether he loves or hates the Hindu people, but it was the day he saw his mother for the last time. This is the scene where mobs killed Muslims coming with a boy painted blue symbolizing their God and where Jamal lost his mother. The reason why the boy painted blue appeared in this particular scene is that to show that ethnic violence between Muslims and Hindus has become very serious. The Hindus created great tension among the Muslims. They pushed Muslims out of their homes, threatening them that they would be killed if they did not leave Mumbai. They want Muslims to leave Mumbai. Appadurai, in his book Spectral Housing and Urban Cleansing, writes thus: "The deliberate effort to terrorize the Muslims of Bombay, to attack their stalls, to burn down their shops and homes, to Hinduize their public spaces through innovations violent rituals and the burning and mutilation of their bodies can hardly be considered a public policy solution to Bombay's housing problems" (649). This is one of the proofs that shows how Hindus want to defend their land by creating violence against Muslims. They want to Hinduize Mumbai. This is strictly prohibited for residents of Mumbai who worship any religion other than Hinduism. They created public terror and confronted Muslims with the message that there was no place for them and that they would be hunted down and killed if they did not leave Mumbai. Different people migrated to Mumbai, especially Muslims. This created traffic jams and ethnic diversity. This resulted in ethnic fear between Muslims and Hindus. The Hindus want to make Mumbai an “ethnically purified city” (Appadurai, 645). They don't want Mumbai to be ethnically diverse to retain their local ethnicity, Hinduism. Their intention is to make their country “the land of the Hindus” (629), a place free of Muslims. They want to preserve 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 full attention to this scene, we can see that it is intended to grab the audience's attention by controlling the sound to make the audience focus at the moment the boy appears. When Jamal and Salim's mother calls them upon seeing the Hindu rioters, the sound was in slow motion. As their mother is hit, the sound becomes chaotic until the boys see the boy painted blue. At this moment, the boys see the boy painted blue and the sound goes into slow mode. I think the Hindu mobs bring the blue painted boy whose dressing and standing style resembles that of God Rama to show their dominance and the 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 that of Muslims. Their backlash against globalization has become serious. To protect their ethnic identity from invasion, they started an anti-Muslim movement, as can be seen in the film. Appadurai, in his book Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy, writes: “The central problem of today's global interactions is the tension between cultural homogenization and heterogenization” (295). This is a proof that Hindus are opposing the movement of people like Muslims to Mumbai. Cultural homogenization occurs when local cultures are dominated by exotic cultures, while cultural heterogenization occurs when different cultures coexist creating diversity. Hindus do not want their culture to be homogenized or heterogenized. There.