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The White Tiger and Slumdog Millionaire comparison

This blog is part of my academic activity given by Prof. Dr.Dilip Barad.

  • What would be your answer if you are asked what the duty of literature is? Or why literature is for? One may say literature is for arising feelings, one may say literature should show reality, one can say literature is just for entertainment. Well, there is no certain answer. Literature has no specific functions. Literature can be just for entertainment also or it can put you in deep philosophical questions.




  • The white Tiger 
  • The novel studies the contrast India's rise as a modern global economy and the lead character, Balram, who comes from crushng rural poverty. 

  • "At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the world from the West, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of [Indian] society. That's what I'm trying to do- it is not an attack on the country, it's abou the greater process of self-examination.
  • "See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of?? Losing weight and looking like the poor." -Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger. 
  • The entire novel is narrated through letters by Balranm Halwai to the Premier of China, who will soon be visiting India.

  • “The India of Light and the India of Darkness." 
  • "Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness." 
  • “An entrepreneur who emerges from the 'India of Darkness" and enters into the 'India of Light –
  • Two 'Indias' in one India.



  • THE WHITE TIGER & SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE 
  • The White Tiger is the story of Balram Halwai's life as a self declared "self-made entrepreneur": a rickshaw driver's son who skilfully climbs India's social ladder to become a chauffer and later a successful businessman. 
  • The film is based on a teen who grew up in the slums in Mumbai. He becomes a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"       

  • Similarities between The White Tiger and Slumdog Millionaire  : 
  • The starting point is that they're both Indian works, based in India and about India. 
  • The other thing is both their storylines are about underdog characters from miserable backgrounds and childhoods rising in an unlikely manner to achieve success in life.
  • The main thing is that both feature an India in which injustice, suffering and poverty are significant and abundant in society.

  • The main plot focus between the two differs markedly in that with White Tiger, the portrayal of social problems is main theme while Slumdog has a romantic element as its central part of its storyline with poverty and crime as significant but accompanying. 
  • They both are the victims of the poor societal system in India; Jamal being tortured and Balram being treated like a slave in the family he works for.

  • In The White Balram dreamt all his life of becoming something successful and making something of himself. Jamal, on the other hand, lived his life focusing on finding the love of his life -Latika. He applied to be on the show be cause he was hoping that Latika would be watching him in the show-not to win the money. 

  • One clear similarity is that the both main characters come from extreme poor conditions. Balram Halwai grows up in poor family with a low caste in a small town in India and Jamal becomes homeless at a very young age and starts to live on the streets in the slum


  • PROFESSION OF BOTH THE PROTAGONISTS

  • Balram and his brother Kishan begin working in a teashop in nearby Dhanbad, Balram neglects his duties and spends his days listening to customer's conversations. 
  • Jamal  works at a call centre, serving tea to the telephone operators

  • Balram Halwai
  • Balram is an Indian man from an impoverished background, born in the village of Laxmangarh. 
  • Balram Halwai is a poor Indian villager whose great ambition dead him to the highpoint of Indian business culture, the world of the Bangalore industrialist 
  • One of the most important facts the school inspect named him "The White Tiger" "The rarest animal -? In the jungle . because he is the cleverest child in Laxmangarh."


  • Jamal Malik
  • Uneducated grew up in the slums of Mumbai where children are forced to work at an early age. Even if there are opportunities, children have to make a living instead of going to school.
  • Ambitious he takes risks that others would never take to achieve his goals.  He introduces himself as a cook so that he can enter Javed's house which is another big risk.



  • They're both Indian works, based in India and about India. 

  • The other thing is both their storylines are about underdog characters from miserable backgrounds and childhoods rising in an unlikely manner to achieve success in life.
  • The main thing is that both feature an India in which injustice, suffering and poverty are significant and abundant in society.
  • The main plot focus between the two differs markedly in that with White Tiger, the portrayal of social problems is main theme while Slumdog has a romantic element as its central part of its storyline with poverty and crime as significant but accompanying. 
  • They both are the victims of the poor societal system in India; Jamal being tortured and Balram being treated like a slave in the family he works for.


  • In The White Balram dreamt all his life of becoming something successful and making something of himself. Jamal, on the other hand, lived his life focusing on finding the love of his life -Latika. He applied to be on the show be cause he was hoping that Latika would be watching him in the show-not to win the money. 
  • One clear similarity is that the both main characters come from extreme poor conditions. Balram Halwai grows up in poor family with a low caste in a small town in India and Jamal becomes homeless at a very young age and starts to live on the streets in the slum.

  • PROFESSION OF BOTH THE PROTAGONISTS

  • Balram and his brother Kishan begin working in a teashop in nearby Dhanbad, Balram neglects his duties and spends his days listening to customer's conversations. 
  • Jamal  works at a call centre, serving tea to the telephone operators



  • 1. Narrative structure - Wanted Poster # KBC show. 
  • Beginning of the story.... 
  • Balram writes from his luxurious office in the city of Bangalore, but the story begins in his rural ancestral village of Laxmangahr. 
  • In the beginning of the film, he is one question away from 20 million rupees, the biggest prize of the contest.
  • Balram recounts his life story in a letter to visiting Chinese official Premier Wen Jiabao, with the goal of educating the premier about entrepreneurship in India.
  • Jamal is prevented under notion of cheating as he knew all the answers and wasn't educated. While being interrogated, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.

  • 2- Indianness
  • India is the topic of narration in both the things. There's deep Indianness,  satire on police system, image of slums, two brothers, trains, difference between"knowledge and understanding". While we imagine about the India , there is first imagery of trains. Crowd displays the poverty. Then the archetype of two brothers, one is good and one is bed. Here in the movie the archetypal imagery of two brothers. In the film, game of question plays a vital role.

  • Here we can find this point in both work movie and novel which present Indianness.

1) Train
2) Cricket
3) Hindu – Muslim conflict 
4) Master- slave relationship 
5) Darker and Lighter  side of India
6) Very bad condition of education
7 ) Very Vital role play by police
8) call centre
9) Globalisation
10) child working in tea shop

  • 3) List of the questions asked in the film 'Slumdog Millionaire.


1. Who was the star in the 1973 hit film "Zanzeer"

   a) Shah Rukh Khan
   b) Salman Khan
   c) Amitabh Bachhan
   d) Ranbir Kapoor
Answer: (c)

2. A picture of three lions is seen in the national emblem of India. What is written underneath it?
    a) The Truth alone triumphs
    b) Lies alone triumphs
    c) Fashion alone triumphs
    d) Money alone triumphs
Answer: (a)

3. In depiction of God Rama, he is famously holding what in his right hand?
    a) A bow and arrow
    b) A sword
    c) A child
    d) A flower
Answer: (a)

4. The song " Darshan Do Ghanshyam" was written by which famous Indian poet?
    a) Surdas
    b) Tulsidas
    c) Mira bai
    d) Kabir
Answer: (a)

5. On the American One Hundred Dollar Bill, there is portrait of which American Statesman?
    a) George Washington
    b) Franklin Roosevelt
    c) Benjamin Franklin
    d) Abraham Lincoln
Answer: (c)

6. Who invented the revolver?
    a) Samuel Colt
    b) Bruce Browning
    c) Dan Wesson
    d) James Revolver
Answer: (a)

7. Cambridge Circus is in which UK City?
    a) Oxford
    b) Leeds
    c) Cambridge
    d) London
Answer: (d)

8. Which cricketer has scored the most first class centuries in history?
    a) Sachin Tendulkar
    b) Ricky Ponting
    c) Michael Slater
    d) Jack Hobbs
Answer: (d)


9. In Alexander Dumas' book, "The Three Musketeers", two of the musketeers are called Athos and Porthos. What was the name of the third Musketeer?
    a) Aramis
    b) Cardinal Richetieu
    c) D' Artagnan
    d) Planchet
Answer: (a)

  • All these questions and their answers are connected with the life of Jamal. It shows that how minutely he observed the things and remember it. This all the questions leads him into his past incidents. All the questions are aptly connected with Jamal ' s life. I don't want to add any other question in this.

  • 4) Deconstruction of film from post colonial perspective.
  • From postcolonial perspective, the film is very problematic. A westerner, Danny Boyle directed the film, which is not satisfies the Indians. The film described the harsh reality of India, and the white people are so much glad to see it. Because it is their wish that Indians are always remain poor, it is beneficial for them. Director used the reality of India, politics, the real side of police system, child abuse. In the film Latika is the example of that, and how Salim is making fool of foreigners to looting them, which not accepted in the Indian society. So, from the postcolonial perspective the film is very problematic 


  • 5) Compare with Texture and Treatment of subject content in film and novel.
  • The novel and the Film based on darker side of India. The texture of the film and novel little differs from each other. In the novel the protegonist himself currupt  person. He himslef consider as the example of darker side of india while in the film Jamal was very good person he never do any wrong thing in his life.It shows the all the negative side of India and Indian people. In the novel minutely observed and describe the each and every dark part of India. In the novel poetic justice not happened by punishing the Balram. He  killed his master and do many wrong things yet  not caught by police. While in the film poetic justice happened when salim committed suicide at the end and Jamal became popular and rich. Both the work differs from each other on the Bases of  treatment  given to wrong people. 





Thank you. .........



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