Slumdog Millionaire 2.4 Essay
(9) Analyse how verbal and visual features of a text (or texts) you have studied are used to give audiences a strong idea.
In the film the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ directed by Danny Boyle verbal and visual features such as colour dialogue and lightning are used to show the presence of the theme ‘destiny’ and to show that this theme is present to the audience. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, is about two lovers who never lose faith and surmount immense obstacles in order to be together.
Danny Boyle uses colour as a visual technique to symbolise or give more depth to the hidden or untold ideas in the film. In the film the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, the colour is used to emphasize and develop the idea of ‘destiny’. The colour yellow symbolises the hope of a new beginning or the positivity in life. Throughout the film we see the character Latika is always see wearing some sort of clothing that is yellow. There is a scene where she meets Jamal for the first time after running away from the riot’s the two brothers hide in the shelter whereas Latika is seen standing outside in the rain. We see her wearing a yellow t-shirt, this could possibly symbolise hope of a new beginning of two people, and also this gives the idea that Jamal would invite Latika into the shelter creating a new ‘destiny’ for both of the brothers and for Latika herself.
Another scene where Latika is seen wearing yellow is on the platform of the train station. There is a high angled shot from Jamal’s perspective of Latika looking down at her, the audience sees her smiling this shows that she is happy to see Jamal. This scene is very important in the film as it is shown through Jamal’s flashbacks and foreshadows events to come. The yellow colour of her t-shirt symbolises hope and destiny and shows their hope that they will be united together once more. The lighting is also shown as very bright against the train station chaos.
Another technique used in the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, is dialogue. Director Danny Boyle uses dialogue as a verbal feature to create depth into the movie whilst using the characters point of view; this gives the