Music for Slumdog Millionaire

The soundtrack to the film was mainly composed by A.R. Rahman, who is an Indian film composer and record producer. He planned the score for over two months and completed it within two weeks. Danny Boyle chose Rahman because not only did he draw on Indian classical music, but he also brought R&B and hip-hop from America and house music from Europe to create an incredible fusion. Rahman won the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and won two out of three nominations for the Academy Awards. The soundtrack includes the popular Hindi song ‘Jai Ho’ which has entered the international lexicon and M.I.A, an English songwriter, recording artist and producer with a Sri Lankan Tamil origin. Film critic Goher Iqad Punn termed the soundtrack Rahman’s ‘magnum opus’ which will acquaint ‘the entire world’ with his artistry.

Slumdog Millionaire UK Trailer

Theatrical Poster for Slumdog Millionaire

The title ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ has been written in bold and in a block colour of pink to immediately attract the attention of the audience. The two main characters shown on the film poster are Dev Patel and Freida Pinto and their names are shown at the bottom in small print. This is because they are not well-known and they are young. There are only a few images used on the poster because most of it is taken up by the writing. It shows the Dev Patel and Freida Pinto smiling while confetti is falling on them. Next to them is a question with a reference to ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ which says: ‘What does it take to find a lost love?: A) Money, B) Luck, C) Brainpower or D) Destiny’ with Destiny highlighted, telling the audience one of the main themes of the film.

These images give the plot of the film away to the audience. No setting is given away on the poster. Different colours are used for the title, director, quotes from reviews and the confetti which reflects the different emotions that are evoked in the film. The quote “The Feel-Good Film of the Decade” followed with 5 stars has “Feel-Good” and “Decade” in a larger font to sell itself to the audience. Also, with the image of Dev Patel cheering furthers the sense of the film having a feel-good theme about it.