PLOT SUMMARY SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE Danny Boyle

Jamal Malik, an 18-year old Mumbai slum kid, get right through to the last question on Who
Wants to be a Millionaire? and the chance to win 20 million rupees.
But straight after the show breaks for the night, he is arrested on suspicion of cheating. The
shows quizmaster Prem Kumar, himself a product of the slums, is unwilling to share the
limelight with the young upstart.
A night of mistreatment and torture fails to elicit a confession, so in the morning the Inspector
of Police changes tack and asks Jamal to explain how he knew the answers.
Question by question, Jamal relates the story of his life.
Growing up in the Juhu slum of Bombay, he is seven when he sees his mother killed in a
religious riot. He and his older brother Salim, now orphans, are forced to live by their wits on
the streets, with Latika, an orphaned girl Jamal comes to care for, and as they grow older to
love.
Seemingly rescued by an orphanage, the children are put to work as beggars. But they are
forced to escape when Salim sees Maman blind young Arvind and learns that he plans to
blind Jamal so he can earn more. The boys manage to jump on a train but Salim deliberately
leaves Latika behind.
The boys live on the trains for the next six years, until they fall off near the Taj Mahal. There
Jamal works as an unofficial tour guide, while Salim steals shoes, car tyres and anything else
available. But Jamal has not forgotten Latika and he and a reluctant Salim return to Bombay
now Mumbai in search of her.
With the help of the blind Arvind, whom Jamal sees singing in a subway, they find Latika,
who is being trained to be a dancer and prostitute. Before the three of them can get away,
Maman and his henchmen arrive. Salim shoots Maman and they flee to an empty hotel. But
Salim offers his services to the gangster Javed, and then claims Latika as his prize,
threatening to shoot Jamal too.
Five years later Jamal is working as a chai-wallah (tea boy) in a mobile phone call centre. He
uses a computer to find Salims phone number. Salim is delighted to see his brother again, but
Jamal is shocked to learn that Salim is working for Javed, and even more shocked to find that
Latika is with Javed too. She is clearly unhappy but is too frightened of Javed to leave him.
When Latika does try to join Jamal, she is followed and forcibly taken back by Salim and
Javeds other thugs. Finding Javeds house empty, Jamal is in despair. He decides to go on the
TV game show in the hope that Latika will be watching it.
Listening to Jamals story, the Inspector comes to believe that this slumdog is telling the
truth. Finally convinced, the Inspector releases him to go back onto the show, to face the final
question.
The story of Jamals dream run on the show and his subsequent arrest has turned him
overnight into a media sensation. When Salim and Latika see Jamal on the news, Salim gives
Latika his car keys so she can escape Javed. While Latika drives across the city towards the
studio, he locks himself in the bathroom with money and his gun.
As Jamal returns to the studio for the final question, Latika is caught up in Mumbais
gridlocked traffic.
With the whole of India watching, Jamal asks to phone a friend. The only number he knows is
that of his brothers mobile phone, on the seat in the vehicle Latika has abandoned. She
reaches it in time, but does not know the answer. Jamal guesses the correct answer anyway
it is destiny and then goes to wait for her at the station. Meanwhile Salim has ensured they
will be safe by shooting Javed before being killed in his turn.
The young couple reunites for the third time, and they walk into their future.