>Fate and coincidence are the main themes of this movie.
>
>"It was written"

There are a couple ways one could take this message. You could take it on a religious/spiritual level and argue that his destiny was written by some higher power but if that's the case then the movie falls flat on its face because, in the end, his mother is dead, his brother offed himself, children in India are still scavenging for loot in garbage dumps and slums are still subject to raids by opposing religious fanatics (which, then, really complicates the "it was written" message if the film's writers truly intended to go the "fate/destiny" route). Further, would this not be the shallowest movie of all time if all of the terrible things that I mentioned are suddenly offset by something as cheesy as "he got the girl and the money in the end"? Why would this movie focus so hard on the social and economic hardships of Indian society only to negate all that torment with such a contrived ending.

On the other hand, I argue that it wasn't about fate but about struggle. Instead of seeing "it was written" as a message of fate, I see that as meaning that the answers to the Millionaire questions were written by the struggles throughout his life. Those who receive top dollar educations in the worlds' most prestigious academic institutions write their lives through essays, exams, term papers, presentations and projects. Jamal's life was written by a form of education that comes from daily struggle: wondering where your next meal will come from, escaping child slavery, hustling at the Taj Mahal and escaping village raids. His voyage across different landscapes in India and his experiences meeting a variety of tourists, gangsters, slavers and even working professionals helped him amass so much knowledge. He gained knowledge that the vast majority of us do not recognize as "intelligence" let alone "education". In this view, his life was not written by some grand force of destiny, it was written by his experiences within his social and economic environment.

Of course there is a great deal of luck and coincidence involved for him to get on the show and have everthing fall in place as they did, but I don't think that luck and coincidence always means "fate/destiny". In fact, in real life, most instances of extreme wealth are partly a result of luck and coincidence. Being in the right place at the right time is the formula of many successful people. If this movie were simply driven by fate and destiny then, yes, he was destined to win the the money and get the girl. His mother was destined to get lead piped in the face, his brother was destined to blood bathe himself in a glorious gangsterific orgy, children of India are destined to find their meals and income in garbage dumps and slavers are destined to rule those children. That's not a very "happy ending" (as people are saying) if you ask me.

Besides, I think the film makers are intelligent enough to have noticed these details. I don't see them going with any other interpretation of "it was written" than the fact that he wrote his own destiny with the help of some lucky circumstances. Makes much more sense that way.