Salim

One of the characters in Slumdog Millionaire is Ram`s best friend Salim. He is a Muslim orphan who comes from a poor family. Because he had to witness how his family was killed by Hindus, he hates them all. He fled to Delhi without any belongings and a constable sent him to the same juvenile home as Ram and he became Ram's best friend. Ram describes Salim as everything that Ram isn´t because Salim is a good looking boy even though he is only seven years old. Because he was so good looking he was a victim of rape by the director of the juvenile home. After this incident he begins to hate homosexuals too. This hatred is observed when Salim is touched by the actor Armaan Ali when he accompanies Ram to the cinema. Salim responds with a tantrum. Ali is his biggest hero and Salim knows all his films. Since then the hero Armaan Ali is dead to him. A soothsayer tells Salim that he will become an actor and he is proud of this and believes in his new dream to become an actor.

During the time Ram is absent from Salim’s life, Salim receives training to become an actor and at end of the book Ram helps Salim to fulfil his dream. So Salim is a naive young boy who is able to fulfil his dreams instead of despairing of his problems and experiences.

Between Salim in the book and in the film there is a big difference. The character Ram is called Jamal in the film. In the film, Salim is a bad character and more important because he is one of the main character. In the film, Salim is not Jamal´s best friend, but his elder brother. In the beginning of the film the two brothers are not orphans; they have a mother who is killed in a Hindu riot. Jamal, rather than Salim is a big fan of Armaan Ali and Salim’s dream isn´t to become an actor. So Jamal is the fan and because Salim is greedy for money he sells Jamal´s signed photograph. When he becomes a street child he becomes a leader and already as a teenager he slides into criminality because he kills the child trafficker Maman and subsequently works for the gangster boss Javed.

Salim seems a cold-hearted miser, but at the end of the film he proves at a point of high tension that he has a good heart; he gives his own life to save Jamal and Latika.

The character Salim displays behaviour which we could associate with the idea of the seven deadly sins. The first of the seven deadly sins, pride, can be seen when a soothsayer said that the “book Salim” would become an actor. He was so proud that he couldn't wait to tell everyone. He also told the teacher in the juvenile home, but after he told the class, all the students laughed at him.

The second deadly sin of greed can be seen when the “film Salim” sold Jamal's signed photograph, just because Jamal caused Salim to lose business. Salim got it back with the photograph.

Lust is also an element of the “film Salim”; after Jamal had found Latika and after the three young people had found a home for themselves in an empty apartment, Salim knew that Latika and Jamal were in love, but he was jealous and threw Jamal out of the apartment. And then he probably raped Latika, so this scene also contained envy, the third of the deadly sins. What we also notice in the book is that Salim was a victim of rape.

Salim often displays anger, because he is an aggressive person, for example after Armaan Ali had touched him in the cinema Salim responded with a tantrum and screamed at him.

The concept of the seven deadly sins shows that between Indian culture and the rest of the world there are not so many differences, because they all have the same attitude to correct behaviour. This shows that people throughout the world share the same values, irrespective of religion and culture.