Salaam Bombay!

A brilliant but sad film in which we follow abandoned Krishna on his quest to make enough money to return to his village. Along the way we meet the street kids, prostitutes, pimps and dealers he shares everyday life with.

An amazing aspect is that all the child actors in the film are real street kids picked after attending workshops run by Nair and friends. In particular the central performances of Krishna, Manju and Coalpiece (his songs!) are superb. Despite their hardships there are some great moments when you see glimpses of the playful kids within.

The film never wanders into over-sentimentality and at times its hard to believe you're not watching a documentary. Hindi-film music and escapism seeps into everyday life, actors mingle with ordinary people and the whole film is shot in real locations around Mumbai that just drip with atmosphere. This sadly includes the chiller room which was filmed as they found it along with the soul-crushing 'Flowers that never bloom' prayer.

The story wanders and can be slow but this only serves to draw you into their world and leave you sad and angry at the end - at the loss of childhood for these kids and countless others. Still relevant today.

Came across this film on a Public channel last night, by mistake... or should I say, by luck! Amazing film, so many layers deep, it got me thinking. I've been a fan of Mira's work since "Mississippi Masala", but had never heard of Salaam Bombay. She demonstrates in this fine film a sense of lighting and composition that's nothing short then breathtaking. The locations were rich as the characters, the acting was touching and sincere... this is a film I won't forget.

Writer/Director Mira Nair presents the tribulations of life on the streets of Bombay, India through the eyes of a young, homeless boy. His arduous story is captured in spectacular cinematography by Nair, whose use of heavy tones and color combined with intriguing camera angels lend to the film's melancholic nature. Not a commercial blockbuster in the United States, this is moving piece of work that deserves every bit of the critical claim it received. A film that stays with you long after viewing!

This is one of the single most powerful films I've ever seen. Having been to India several times and knowing to an extent what it's like for the poor kids that have to make it on the streets, it really gets to me. I know that it received quite a bit of critical acclaim when it came out, but I didn't discover it until recently, and, judging from the number of votes that its gotten on this site, it doesn't seem as though too many people have seen it. I hope more people do; these kids don't have much of a voice in their own country, let alone the rest of the world, but movies like this give them one and it should be heard by everyone.

This is one of the single most powerful films I've ever seen. Having been to India several times and knowing to an extent what it's like for the poor kids that have to make it on the streets, it really gets to me. I know that it received quite a bit of critical acclaim when it came out, but I didn't discover it until recently, and, judging from the number of votes that its gotten on this site, it doesn't seem as though too many people have seen it. I hope more people do; these kids don't have much of a voice in their own country, let alone the rest of the world, but movies like this give them one and it should be heard by everyone.