Guide Mentor

Character Role Analysis

Jamal's Inner Strength / Salim

This one is going to get a bit weird. There is no clear-cut mentor figure in Slumdog who swoops down and takes Jamal under his or her wing, like Gandalf does for Frodo in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Instead, our orphaned hero has nothing but his own ingenuity and strength of will to guide him through the dangerous Juhu streets. Jamal's extraordinarily determined to reconnect with his loved one, Latika, and will stop at nothing to achieve this goal, however insurmountable the odds.

But for much of his childhood, Jamal wasn't alone. His older brother, Salim, was there watching over him after the death of their mother. And though Salim's presence proves to be a significant an obstacle in Jamal's life (he's the antagonist, y'all), we can't forget that Salim often served as protector to his little brother. He saves Jamal's neck several times at his own expense—most notably betraying Maman to stop him from blinding Jamal, and later, sacrificing himself to kill Javed on the behalf of Jamal and Latika.