Themes

Destiny

The film Slumdog Millionaire (2008) directed by Danny Boyle presents the theme of destiny, especially in connection to Jamal and Latika. We get the impression that everything that happened to Jamal was destined to happen.

The text from the beginning offers information about Jamal, who is an unlikely contestant in the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. One of the explanations offered for how Jamal knew the answers claims that “It is written”, meaning that Jamal was always meant to win the show and become a millionaire. 

The notion of destiny is mentioned several times. Jamal firmly believes that it is his destiny to be with Latika. This belief, however, is not shared by Latika. It should be noted, though, that even though Jamal thinks he and Latika are destined to be together, he is never passive and does not simply sit back and allow events to take their course. Whenever he and Latika are separated, Jamal takes active steps to find her. Some of the methods he uses seem desperate and unrealistic, such as entering a game show simply because he knows Latika watches it. This would be in line with the belief that a person makes their own destiny.

Nevertheless, there are times when Jamal seems to entrust himself to a higher power, believing that things will go his way in the end. This is seen especially during the final ques...