Sound in slumdog Millionaire

A general comment about,

How is sound used Primarily in Slumdog Millionaire? in this scene-

Sound is primarily used in the clip to create fear and fright to the audience to try and get them involved the chaos happening in the film. This is done by playing non-diegetic music over the shouts of fear around the children as they run. The muffled sounds keep on fading in and out also. This is to show the audience that it is a dream sequence and parts of the flashback cannot be remembered. But the muffling sound also occurs when he is coming out of the dream and the music of the show fades in. This again is to show he was dreaming whilst always being there.


What is the balance between diegetic and non-diegetic sounds?

There are lots of diegetic sounds at the start of screaming and muffled shouting. But there is a fast paced drum beat always playing. This gives the effect of memory because the sound being muffled makes it "dream like" and the music builds fear and panic. And although you can always hear the non-diegetic music playing you can still hear diegetic sounds of screaming and smashing bottles throughout  the clip.


Finally, 3 things to comment on about sound in the clip:

1.The sound at the start of the clip when it is muffled and echoing gives the audience the effect that he is under water and the echoing slow voices are used to show shock and horror because after all this is a flash back and this part may be a part that he remembers well and is distraught about it so the repetition of voices like that is used to show that that moment was significant.

2. The music of the show is used to symbolise the end of the flashback and it brings the character back to reality. But it also brings the audience back from the sequence because they may be shocked from what they just saw and they are probably very engaged at his point in the clip so by using the sound of the theme song it helps them also come back to reality as it is an iconic sound is well known to most people.

3. The sound of the rain while they are ion the shelter shows sadness and loneliness and that is obviously very relevant to this scene. And the fact that it is very heavy rain and that they are outside shows vulnerability because they are alone and there is a girl outside. Now, I don't know if it is to show vulnerability towards the two boys or the girl or maybe even both. But as we later find out it was for both as they are all in the same situation.