Talk:Q & A (novel)

Plot?

can we have the plot of this novel????? sure we can,but we have to take care of the pets first.It is impossible for us to feed the lions and give you the plot.So smoke some

-- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.99.204.99 (talk) 06:55, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Most of this article’s text came from a book review by Simon Sandall and from a HarperCollins summary. I’ve cut out the copyvio text and tried to provide a summary to avoid blanking the whole article, but I haven’t read the book, so I can’t say why it’s notable. --Rob Kennedy 03:50, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

How does plot differ from far more well-known movie?

Can someone who has read the book enhance the plot summary so that it's clear how the book and the movie differ? -- 75.144.159.89 (talk) 18:29, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

The plot of the book is almost unrelated to the movie. There are a few episodes that coincide, but the film is mostly "inspired by" the book rather than "based on". Above all, the book builds suspense (and improves believability) by having the episodes from Ram's life told in a non-linear fashion — it is pretty amazing in the film that not only are the questions the ones that Jamal can answer, but they also occur in order so that we don't have to jump back and forth in his life. 95.172.68.155 (talk) 14:43, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

More on the radio adaptation

I work for the BBC so its a conflict of interest for me to add this link or facts derived from it as a notable source but Mark Damazer; the Radio 4 boss has written a blog post about how the adaptation of Q&A for the BBC came about: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2009/02/slumdog_you_heard_it_on_radio.html Jem (talk) 21:25, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Charles Ingram

The Charles Ingram influence was part of the original story, as illustrated by Swarup's quote in the "Influences" section. It was not an element added for the movie. - AyaK (talk) 18:01, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Some more . . .

This entire section, apparently containing a verbatim interview with the author (copyright violation?), is unsourced. It is interesting, and without it there is hardly any meat to the article. However, it is not an adequate substitute for a description of the novel. HowardMorland (talk) 11:19, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, that section should be removed in its entirety 198.6.46.11 (talk) 16:03, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Synopsis

As I was preparing the following detailed synopsis, a one-time user with an IP address posted a more concise plot description. I will post mine here for possible substitution, if people want this much detail in the article.

The book is a plot-centered thriller and mystery novel whose main significance is its snapshots of underclass life in India and its role as the inspiration for Slumdog Millionaire, the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 2008.

In the book, the quiz show is called "Who Will Win a Billion?" or W3B, offering a top prize of one billion rupees ($20 million US in 2009). In the original real-life quiz show, Kaun Banega Crorepati or KBC, the top prize was one crore rupee, or ten million rupees. In the movie and in the up-dated quiz show, the top prize is two crore rupees, or twenty million rupees ($400,000 US).

In the book, the young contestant and protagonist is an orphan abandoned at birth in the clothing bin of a Catholic church in Delhi. He acquires the surname Thomas from a family that adopts him for three days and then returns him to the church. He is raised for eight years by an English priest, Father Timothy, who gives him the first and middle names Ram and Mohammad at the request of local religious leaders suggest that his birth parents might be either Hindu or Muslim. He learns English and Catholic theology. Question #2: The four letters on a crucifix.

In the movie, his name is Jamal Malik, and he is not orphaned until he is eight. Father Timothy and the Catholic church do not appear in the movie.

When Father Timothy is murdered by another priest, Ram, age eight, is sent to a juvenile home, where, as the only boy who speaks English, he becomes the leader of the 150 residents. After one year, a new resident Salim Ilyasi, age seven, arrives as an orphan when a Hindu mob murders his Muslim family. They become best friends.

A year later, when Ram is ten and Salim is eight, the juvenile home's major benefactor moves them both to a residential music school near Mumbai, where all the children seem to be crippled. Ram and Salim are taught songs of the blind poet Surdas, and Ram suspects they will be blinded when they finish learning the songs, in order to work as blind, singing beggars. Question #4: The favorite god of the blind poet Surdas - Krishna. Ram and Salim escape to the center of Mumbai.

In the movie, Salim is Jamal's older brother, and both of them are orphaned at the same time by the Hindu mob. Rather than a juvenile home, they end up in the city dump, as rag children picking through garbage. From the dump, they are recruited for the crippled children's school. In the most disturbing scene of the movie, a young beggar boy is drugged and blinded with acid while unconscious. There is no such scene in the book, although its possibility is suggested.

For three years, from ages 11 through 13, Ram works as a daytime houseboy for a retired movie actress who, in 1985, had won India's Best Actress award for portraying Mumtaz Mahal, the woman for whom the Taj Mahal was built. Question #10: The year Neelima Kumari won best actress - 1985. Neelima's boyfriend batters the actress, leaving cigarette burns on her breasts, and drives her to suicide, ending Ram's employment.

While working for the actress, Ram lives on the second floor of a Mumbai chawl, sharing a room with Salim, an obsessed movie fan. Ram learns the answer to Question #1: The first movie in which Armaan Ali and Priya Kapoor starred together - Betrayal.

At age 12 he hears war stories from a veteran of the 1971 war, which turn out to be self-aggrandizing fiction by a deserter who hangs himself when the truth is revealed. Ram learns the answer to question #8: India's highest award for military gallantry - Param Vir Chakra..

An older girl, Gudiya, whose face Ram never sees, lives next door in the chawl with her drunken father Shantaram, an astronomer. They can hear through the apartment walls. Question #3: The smallest planet - Pluto. Shantaram physically and sexually abuses his daughter until Ram pushes him off the balcony to his death (he thinks).

Ram then flees Mumbai for New Delhi, leaving Salim behind, and finds employment as one of four house servants for an Australian diplomat. Ram is sixteen when his Australian employer is kicked out of India for spying. Question #5: The meaning of "persona non grata" - an unwelcome diplomat. He leaves that job with 52,000 rupees ($1,000 US), his entire salary for three years work.

On the train back to Mumbai he loses it all to armed robbers, but he wrestles a Colt revolver from the hands of one robber and shoots him dead. The money is gone, but Ram has the answer to question #7 (worth 100,000 rupees): Inventor of the revolver - Samuel Colt. He throws the revolver in the river.

He leaves the train in Agra to see the Taj Mahal and eventually becomes a tour guide for two years, learning the answer to question #12: Mumtaz Mahal's father - Asaf Jah. He falls in love with a prostitute named Nita who is battered by a customer who leaves cigarette burns on her breasts, similar to Neelima's injuries. Ram steals 400,000 rupees to buy her freedom, but when her pimp refuses the offer, Ram gives the money to an English teacher whose son needs the money for a rabies vaccine. The grateful teacher later serves as Ram's telephone lifeline for question #11: The Shakespeare play with a character named Costard - Love's Labour's Lost.

In the movie, Jamal's love interest is Latika, a childhood friend from the slums who is forced into prostitution in Mumbai.

After a separation of five years, Ram bumps into Salim on a Mumbai street. Salim tells what happened during his absence. He encountered Babu Pillai, alias Maman, who had brought them from Delhi to his music school for crippled beggars in Mumbai. They recognized each other, Maman gave chase, and Salim escaped again, onto a bus which was later stopped by a Hindu mob intent on killing all the Muslims on the bus. Salim was saved by a man who brandished a handgun, without firing it, and who then hired Salim as a houseboy. The man with the gun turned out to be a compulsive gambler on cricket games, with encyclopedic knowledge. Question #9: The number of Test centuries scored by Sachin Malvankar - thirty-six. The man also turned out to be a contract killer. By tampering with one of his assignments, Salim managed to save the life of a movie producer and have Maman killed instead. The grateful producer paid for Salim's acting lessons, and got him started in the movie business.

In the movie, Salim, who is Jamal's older brother, not his younger friend, is the one with the gun. Salim shoots Maman when the two of them encounter him together. Salim then goes to work for Latika's pimp and helps to hold her captive until he has a change of heart and lets her escape with his car and cell phone. Salim then shoots the pimp and is killed by his henchmen.

As a bartender in Mumbai, Ram picks up enough information from a drunken patron to answer question #6: The capital of Papua New Giunea. When the patron drops dead, Ram steals his revolver and becomes armed for the first time.

When Ram becomes a game show contestant, it is pure happenstance that most of the questions have answers in his life experiences, with two exceptions. During the first commercial break, it is revealed that he has no idea about the meaning of F.B.I., which is question #2, and he is allowed to choose his own question and answer for #2, just to keep the game going. When he later answers #12 and wins the billion-rupee grand prize, he is told that question didn't count and the real question #12 will come after the next commercial break.

During the break, both Ram and the host, Prem Kumar, are in the bathroom alone together. Ram pulls out the gun he took from the dead bar patron and reveals that his motive for going on the quiz show was to get close enough to Prem to kill him for abusing the two women in his life: the actress Neelima Kumari, and the Agra prostitute Nita. He loses his nerve, and rather than pull the trigger he offers to spare Prem's life if he tells the answer to the new question #12, which he does.

After winning the grand prize, again, Ram is arrested by police who try to torture him into signing a confession of cheating. This is where the book begins. He is rescued from torture by a woman lawyer who calls herself Smita, and who listens to his explanations, given in the sequence of the question number. She then reveals herself to be Gudiya, from the chawl, whose father had suffered only a broken leg when Ram pushed him from the balcony, and who had stopped raping Gudiya after his fall.

Gudiya gets him his prize money, Ram marries Nita, Salim becomes a movie star, and the crippled children are liberated from their imprisonment.

In the movie, Jamal never carries a gun and never shoots or threatens anybody. Salim does the shooting. There is no lawyer, and no Gudiya. Jamal's interrogation is conducted by the police, before, not after, the last question. The police release him to complete the quiz show. The host, Prem (no last name), has no history with Jamal or his women and is not an evil character, although he does try to trick Jamal into giving a wrong answer. Jamal's motive for going on the show is to attract the attention of Latika, with whom he has lost contact (despite her being in the custody of his brother Salim). I'm unsure about this part of the movie plot.

As in the book, he gets the money and the girl.

HowardMorland (talk) 19:24, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

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