Whenever a book turns into movie, there are often pieces of the book that don’t make it into the movie for various reasons. It could be that the book is too long or that some information is not essential to the plot. Either way, it’s important that not too much is changed or else it becomes something completely different. In the movie, Slumdog Millionaire, there are several details and scenes which are completely different in the book that it is based off of. The first major example of this would be characters themselves. In the book, the main character is Ram Mohamad Thomas, whereas in the movie, the protagonist is Jamal Malik. In the book, Ram is an orphan from the start with the entire book showing how he moved from one place to another all leading up to the beggar agent. In the movie, Jamal is given a mother who is killed, which leads him to run away to the beggar agent. In the book, Ram works for a bolly actress and knows the host of “”Who Will Win A Billion?” from a previous incident. In the movie, Jamal works in a call center and doesn’t know the host of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”.
In the book, Ram and Salim are best friends who could be seen as almost brothers, but in the movie, they are brothers. In the movie, Latika is the only major female character to influence the main character, whereas in the book, there are several others beside her. While the movie did miss some critical parts of the book, overall, it did a good job of showcasing the theme and purposes of the book. Poverty is terrible thing, fate and destiny can be amazing, and talent can be found anywhere, even in the slums of India.
Third World Literature 