Blog Assignment #8 Scene Deconstruction

Slumdog Millionaire - Boys on a Train

I think that the theme of Slumdog Millionaire focuses on prejudices of the lower class in India. Even in their poor living conditions and struggles they still manage to find joy and love.  It displays how resourceful and clever these young boys are when it comes to surviving and finding food on this train. In one sequence, they try to steal some cooked food from the upper class cart from the outside of the train only to get caught. I believe that this is a active theme because the audience is constantly bombarded with images of struggle.

As the train makes its way across the Indian countryside it begins with movement from left to right. The scene then cuts to the inside of the cabs to show action taking place from within and the audience has no clues of movement. When we cut back out we see that the train is moving in the opposite direction, right to left, but then it starts to turn into the background. The camera flips around  and we see that the train is coming towards  us going left to right again. This makes the audience conscience that the train is still going forward to whatever destination it is taking the boys. In this scene the director also makes good use of line. In a majority of the shots, the camera is tilted to turn straight lines of the visual plane into diagonals. This gives the audience a sense of movement throughout the scene because they are on a train that is always moving. This is a good way to show that they are still traveling forward on the train even though we see a shot on the inside of the cab and creates tension until we reach our destination. Curvilinear lines are also prominent within the scene such as train as it travels through the hilly countryside and the balloons the boys are trying to sell to the riders. I believe that this displays a sort of freedom and happiness that the brothers possess even in their rough situation. All these aspects relate to the theme in some way and the cinematographer did a great job choosing his shots.