Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire - Review

I had an invitation from a new friend for a movie in October 2009 in central London. Unfortunately, I had an emergency matter. I was back in Malaysia with only an SMS saying, "I'm sorry. I cannot go to the movie. Shall I send you a review when I have a chance to watch the movie?" I tried to contact him again when I was in London a few months ago. I could not reach him using email and his mobile phone number. In short, "Slumdog Millionaire" is a good movie. It passed a message to the audiences that a boy was born and grown in the slums of Mumbai could be smarter than lawyers and doctors by winning the game event, ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’. He won twenty-million Indian Rupees. He showed the audiences that his knowledge was better than lawyers and doctors even though he never had a chance to go through a formal education. Former education is very important. Unfortunately, not all human beings have the opportunity to enroll to formal schools. He gained the knowledge through his life in the slums, and the adventures on the road with his brother and his “love”.

It was unbelievable that the boy, Jamal Malik from the story won the game. The movie showed the ugly side of the human beings being the sour grapes because they did not understand why a boy was born and grown in slums could answer all the questions. The police arrested him for a night during the break towards the last question of the contest. The police suspected him of cheating. Also, the movie showed the violence of the police force towards a victim. The policemen should not beat him because he was not charged being found guilty yet. In additional, where were the human rights? “Should the policemen go for the course of Ethics and Professional Conduct? Is that right to beat people even though they are wrong?”

“Should you use a better method to ask questions instead of beating someone? It hurt physically and emotionally. He was innocent, and he was smart. He never cheated. Why did you want to suspect him? Why did you want to beat him? Why did you want to give him so much trouble?”

“I have a suggestion for the sour grapes. When you are not sure why people are very smart, kindly invite him for tea to ask him properly rather than asking the police to arrest him and accuse him of cheating. His reputation and trust were down the drains. Were there any compensation given?” “I would recommend all to watch the movie. Kindly purchase the original copy because the pirated one is not going to give you a very good sound effect. We need to support the original copies of production. Support the original copies!”

I hoped that the audience will get the following messages.

1. Love at first sight is very powerful. Love is without conditions.

2. Never look down at people who are not born in a good environment. These people might have many merit points for us to learn from them. They could be smarter than us.

3. Professionals such as lawyers, doctors, engineers and professors are job titles. It indicates intelligence and expertise in a particular field. Therefore, when we talk about life and other knowledge, we are all equal. Let's learn from each other about life and other knowledge. It is not professional to say, "You are a lawyer. How come you do not know this simple thing?" If you are a friend of the lawyer, kindly let the lawyer know what the simple thing is. Tell him how other people perceive from their perspective, and seek the lawyer's opinion to find out what his position and perspective are in a given situation.

4. "Sour grapes" is formed as a result of the people’s thinking are not matching the way it supposed to be. In other words, your expectation is not matching with the outcome of an event. For example, the policemen from the story perceived that only doctors and lawyers deserved to win the game, "Who wants to be a millionaire?". The policemen perceived that only doctors and lawyers were smart. They perceived that a boy who was born and grown up in slums of Mumbai was definitely a cheater. Thus, there were unnecessary suspicion and violence inflicted on the victim. Why not one tries to understand him, understand how he grew up and his life experiences?

5. It is urgency to form the Ethics and Professional Conduct Law. A fine system is necessary for how people talk, and how people perceive. It is not an offence. It is just like a punishment for non-professional people, and, the non-professional attitude has jeopardized others' image, reputation and trust. The people who are non-professional judge a scenario with wrong reasoning methods and also, they do not understand the whole picture. Thus, you should not make a conclusion when you are not informed with enough information.

If you have done the mentioned mistake, kindly change your mindsets. If it is within your capacity, kindly give necessary compensation.

It was something funny when you heard some extremely intelligent people in certain fields gave comments on their country's government. These people did not understand the meaning of Accounting and Business, but, they could judge people were corrupted when they knew some former politicians have millions in their bank account. At the first place, how did they know that they had that amount of money? Was the banker ethical and professional?

Let me show you a simple calculation without any bank interest, life insurance, bonds, blue chips and properties ownership for a normal individual who has an income of ten thousand Ringgit Malaysia per month for ten years. The ten thousand Ringgit Malaysia is the net income because he or she has a company car and a company house. The food and traveling expenses are provided. One hundred and twenty months multiply ten thousand Ringgit Malaysia equal to one million and two hundred thousand. According to some insurances, bonds and blue chips investment projection, they show minimum of forty percent to a maximum of four hundred percent as the investment return. It is not strange when a person who used to work for ten years with ten thousand Ringgit Malaysia monthly salaries will have a few millions in a bank account.

The investor was not corrupted, understand? The investor was wise in investing. As a result of your suspicion and your stupidity to listen to rumors, the investor has a reduced in reputation and trust. “You may start to learn how to become a smart investor. Should government servants and policemen attend business and investment courses?”

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