Why Slumdog Millionaire and Good Fortune Stay With Me. A Personal Reflection
Life's circle explored through hardship and comfort in Slumdog Millionaire and Good Fortune.
There are films I enjoy, and then there are films that stay with me quietly, almost stubbornly, long after the credits roll.
Slumdog Millionaire and Good Fortune belong firmly in that second category.
They are different in style, geography, and pacing, yet they meet at the same truth I’ve learned over time: life is not a straight line. It is a circle. And every turn, especially the uncomfortable ones, has a reason.
Slumdog Millionaire: When Life Teaches You Without Permission
Jamal Malik, played by Dev Patel, doesn’t succeed because of luck or brilliance. He succeeds because he survived, observed, and remembered. Every question he answers on the game show is rooted in a moment from his past, moments marked by fear, hunger, loss, or love.
The scene that always stays with me is the question about the $100 bill and which U.S. president appears on it. Jamal doesn’t know the answer from school or books. He knows it because of a situation in his life where money mattered, where awareness mattered. That image stayed with him because it carried weight at the time.
That moment captures what makes the film feel so real to me. Life doesn’t always reward effort immediately. Sometimes it stores it. Then, much later, it brings it back when you least expect it. The hardship becomes preparation. The memory becomes currency.
Performances by Freida Pinto as Latika and Anil Kapoor as the game show host reinforce that realism. Power, vulnerability, ambition, and moral compromise all coexist. Nothing feels exaggerated. It feels familiar, because life often is.
Footnote
Slumdog Millionaire’s emotional pull is inseparable from its music. The film’s soundtrack, composed by A. R. Rahman, culminates in “Jai Ho,” a song that feels less like a celebration and more like release. After everything the story puts you through, the music doesn’t just end the film, it lifts it, reminding you that even after hardship, joy still finds its way back into the circle.
Good Fortune (2025): When the Circle Turns on Comfort
What resonated with me is how the film questions fate, privilege, and responsibility. It looks at how much of what we call success is truly earned, and how much is simply timing and circumstance. It asks what happens when life decides to rebalance things, when comfort is disrupted and perspective is forced.
Unlike Slumdog Millionaire, where hardship builds awareness over time, Good Fortune shows what happens when awareness arrives suddenly. When assumptions break. When certainty weakens. The film suggests that meaning doesn’t come from stability, it comes from perspective.
Keanu Reeves brings a quiet seriousness that makes fate feel personal rather than abstract. Seth Rogen grounds the story in human contradiction. Aziz Ansari’s direction avoids preaching, letting the ideas sit and unfold naturally.
It feels real because it mirrors modern life. Many of us move through the world protected by comfort until something unexpected pulls that protection away. And only then do we really start seeing clearly.
What These Two Films Taught Me
Together, these films show both sides of the same circle.
One shows how struggle prepares you silently for moments you cannot predict.
The other shows how comfort can disappear, demanding humility in return.
Both remind me that life rarely explains itself in real time. Meaning usually arrives later, when the loop closes and the dots finally connect.
Why Their Message Stays With Me
They remind me to be grateful for every minute, not because life is always generous, but because today’s ordinary moment may become tomorrow’s defining memory.
They remind me to stay humble, because position, comfort, and certainty are temporary.
And they remind me to be caring, because the person in front of me may simply be standing at a different point on the same circle.
Life always comes back around.
And how we show up in one turn often shapes what we’re given in the next.
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