Drew Linarelli

Catholic Social Teaching, period 1

Ms. Cardone
6 December 2017
“Analyzing Catholic Social Teaching in Stories” project

Movie I have chosen: Slumdog Millionaire

Major events that occur in the movie that relate to justice or injustice:

 Jamal and his brother Salim were taken in by an organization which blinds children with
special talents and uses them to beg for money on the streets.
 Jamal is beaten by the game show hosts because they believe that he is cheating.
 Most of the people in the movie live in poverty in the slums.

Synopsis:

Slumdog Millionaire tells a fictional story of a young man, named Jamal Malik, who
competed in India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. After being taken into custody
due to an accusation on cheating, he recounts his life and how he came to know all of the
answers of the gameshow questions. Jamal Malik, raised in the slums of Mumbai alongside his
brother Salim, became orphaned after a barbaric raid by a nearby tribe. Living off of the streets,
with no parents, they come to meet Latika, the “third musketeer” who is also an orphaned child
trying to ravage what she can find off of the streets. All three of them are later brought in by the
gangster Maman, who forces children with special talents to beg for money. Jamal and Salim
were later able to escape, however Latika was left behind.
After years of living off of the road, Jamal later decides that he wants to try and find
Latika. With the help of his brother, they are able to find Latika and escape leaving Mamam shot
and killed by Salim. However, Salim’s ambition grew leading him to threaten Jamal and steal
Latika away from him.
The story then shifts to Jamal, all grown up working as an assistant at a telemarketing
office. In efforts to be fully happy, he decides to attempt to find Latika one more time. He
successfully contacts his brother Salim, for the first time in years, and eventually discovers that
Latika is held by a drug lord named Javed. He then secretly follows Salim to his compound
meeting Latika and tells her that he will wait at the train station every day for her. The next day,
to his surprise, Latika meets him. Unfortunately, she was soon chased down and captured by
Salim and Javed’s fellow crew members.
Finally, we catch up to the present time and understand that one of the reasons he decided
to go on this game show was to catch the attention of Latika. In this moment, on the gameshow
he is asked to name the third musketeer for the grand prize. Not knowing the answer, he decides
to call in his brother to help him. After several rings, surprisingly Latika answers the phone and
tells him that she also does not know the answer. While the gameshow was going on, Salim
secretly let Latika escape with his phone, and was later shot by Javed’s crew. However, after
Jamal’s call to Latika, he decided to guess the answer. Guessing the answer correctly, he won the
grand prize and immediately fled to the train station where he met Latika, which creates a
peaceful and heartwarming ending to the movie.

Character’s View of Justice: