Slumdog Millionaire - Amitabh Bachchan's autograph scene.

Camera Angles:

1.       The close-up on Amitabh Bachchan’s wrists as he is autographing Jamals photograph shows the jewellery he has and his clean blue and beige clothing. The ring and watch emphasises his wealth and money. This and his clean, neat clothing shows the contrast between himself and Jamal. As Jamal is covered in crap and is very poor. Then, if you think about the end of the movie and Jamal’s money situation at that time you see a huge change. I think this shot works to show how far Jamal has come, by comparing this scene - the place he was in then with money. With the amount of money he has later on.

2.       The low angle shot, where it shows the crowd of paparazzi and security displays the chaos and how hectic this situation is in this scene. This shot also influences the viewer by working to show how someone famous gets so much attention. This may be the type of attention Jamal gets after he wins the money, we don’t know for sure but it is possible, since it is said that all of India is watching him. This shot shows how much chaos Jamal deals with daily, not so much the famous people, but definitely with all of these people, pushing and shoving, not really worrying about anyone else. It shows how Jamal and his brother have to take care of themselves, because they have no one else.

Sound convention:

The noise of the helicopter in this scene is quite loud. It could suggest several different things, like something bad is about to happen, such as a war or an attack, which wouldn’t be surprising in this movie since the film consists of a lot of suffering and harm. But in this case it brings the focus towards the person that is in the helicopter. The sound of the helicopter is fast as the propeller spins, which emphasises on the fact that he has to hurry to get Amitabh Bachchan’s autograph. And although it doesn’t seem that the pace of shots increases hugely, it still makes the viewer feel that there is a rush.

Pace:

The pace of this scene changes in different parts. For example, when they show a few shots of Amithabh’s career in acting. The pace picks up, this may be because he usually works on action films, by the look of the shots he does. The pace also picks up when Jamal realises his brother has locked him in the long drop room. This is because Jamal knows he needs to hurry and he is in a rush. The pace is not very fast when Jamal is getting the autograph and has gotten the autograph, because it shows that he has what he wants and is successful, no need to rush anymore.

Costume:

As said before, the contrast between Amithabh’s outfit and everyone else’s, especially Jamal’s, shows how much higher up the actor is. This displays his wealth, and although it doesn’t mean that Amithabh is a better, more decent person than Jamal, the clothing also shows that the actor is more important to the public, to India. As a child, when Jamal walked around town he didn’t have huge crowds following him, he wasn’t transported by helicopter or have security guards looking out for him. In fact, it was almost the opposite. He was only with his brother and Latika they were the only ones looking out for him when his mother died. He had no way of getting places other than walking, except in the off chance that he scored a ride, like when they travelled on top of a train. The security guards weren’t looking out for Jamal, as you see in the first scene the security guards threaten to kill him. This is just because of the fame, the fame that Jamal doesn’t have as a child, but that may come when he is older. This becomes quite ironic when you watch the film as a whole and look back on this scene.

Realistic Acting:

Throughout the film the acting comes across as being realistic to me, in this scene it is the same. I personally thought it was very realistic. This may have been because the whole film seems realistic, the situations they’re in are very possible as a child without parents in India. The places, the disgusting, dirty places these children had to live in. The way they were treated by others seemed possible too.  Maybe that is why I felt that the acting was realistic in the film.

Opinion on the scene’s importance towards the movie:

I feel that this scene played a big part in showing the audience how much Jamal’s life had changed, or was about to change. When watching the first time the audience wouldn’t see the irony in how different his life would be, but after watching it once before you can see how opposite his lifestyle will be.