Slowed Memories
Danny Boyle uses a slowed-down frame in order to show Jamal's memories throughout the film. The imagery lets us know that we are not in the present time, but the past, and that the images being portrayed are ones that haunt Jamal's psyche. By slowing down the images of the memories, Boyle invites the viewer into Jamal's interior life. Images that recur include his mother being killed in the Bombay riots, and Latika smiling up at him on the train platform right before getting kidnapped by Javed's men.
Salim's death
After helping Latika to escape from Javed Khan, Salim knows that he will have to face the consequences with the gangster. Resigned to his fate, the sacrifice he has made for his childhood friend, Salim fills a bathtub with money, the only reward for the life of a gangster, and gets into the tub with a revolver, prepared to meet his fate. He dies after getting shot, bathing in a tub of money. While the image suggests that he has chosen a life of greed and violence, he is also redeemed, having helped someone who needed it and asked for forgiveness from his god.
Edge of Frame
Boyle shoots Maman on the extreme left edge of the frame as rain pours down over the man. We only see his left eye in the frame, just after he has blinded a young boy to make him a more valuable beggar. The imagery shows just how dangerous and menacing Maman is. While we have seen him be ruthless and evil previous to this, the blinding incident only confirms how heartless he is in dealing with the children, and this shot of him, at the edge of the frame, confirms that he is a villain rather than a savior for these children.
Autograph
One of the most striking and comic images in the film is the image of the young Jamal, having jumped through the hole of a public toilet into the feces below, running towards the Bollywood star, Amitabh Bachchan, in hopes of getting his autograph. The image of the boy covered in feces but holding a perfectly pristine photograph to be autographed is striking in the contrast between shiny Bollywood celebrity worship and a young slumdog literally covered in poop. This image will set the scene for Jamal's ascension, as he continues to be a lower-class character who manages to commune with greatness.
