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Shafiq Syed, Sarfuddin Qurrassi, Raju Barnad, Raghubir Yadav, Nana Patekar ... see more see more... , Aneeta Kanwar , Hansa Vithal , Mohanraj Babu , Chandrashekhar Naidu , Shaukat Azmi , Dinshaw Daji , Alfred Anthony , Ramesh Deshavani , Chanda Sharma , Max von Sydow , Anjaan

Shot on-location on the streets of Bombay, Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! is the gritty tale of Krishna (Shafiq Syed, a runaway discovered by Nair), a boy kicked out of his home, and abandoned by the trav... read more read more...eling circus he had joined. In desperation, he uses the little money he has to buy a one-way ticket to the nearest city, which turns out to be Bombay. "Come back a movie star," the ticket agent tells him mockingly. In Bombay, Krishna joins a small community of street kids, and gets a job delivering tea. Soon, everyone in the downtrodden neighborhood knows him as "Chaipau" (tea boy). Krishna wants to save five hundred rupees, enough money to get back into his mother's good graces and return home. Chillum (Raghubir Yadav), a streetwise young man who deals drugs for the local kingpin, Baba (Nana Patekar), takes Krishna under his wing. The sly but cruel Baba has a mistress, Rekha (Aneeta Kanwar), who works as a prostitute. She has a young daughter, Manju (Hansa Vithal), who has a crush on Krishna, but Krishna only has eyes for the girl they call "Sweet Sixteen," a virginal teenager who is being forced into prostitution. Eventually, Baba fires the surly Chillum, and Krishna finds himself struggling to keep Chillum alive by supporting his drug habit. Many of the roles in the film are played by non-actors, including the street kids, and an actual madame who allowed Nair to film scenes in her brothel. The Harvard-educated Nair began her filmmaking career working on documentaries. Salaam Bombay!, her narrative feature debut, won worldwide critical acclaim, and was awarded the Caméra d'Or at Cannes. She and the film's screenwriter, Sooni Taraporevala, also collaborated on Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

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90% liked it

5,250 ratings

Critics

92% liked it

12 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: Mira Nair

Release Date: September 13, 1988

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DVD Release Date: March 4, 2003

Stats: 271 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (271)

  • bottcorecords1
    January 12, 2010
    bottcorecords1
    Salaam Bombay! is the story of homeless children living in the streets of Bombay, following one little boy's story in particular. Krishna (also referred to in the movie as Chaipau) starts the film off working in the circus, where his mother has sent him to pay off a debt of 500 ... read morerupees he incurred through criminal misbehavior. When the circus leaves without him, he buys a ticket to the nearest big city, and begins to save up the money to be able to return home. But it's very hard to save money while living on the street, when your friends are junkies and thieves. Chaipau also befriends a young girl who's been sold to the local brothel, and is having difficulty adjusting to her new life in forced prostitution. Baba the pimp (he reminds me a little of Harvey Keitel's pimp from Taxi Driver), who lets his own wife turn tricks, is also a drug dealer, and is responsible for getting Chaipau's friend hooked. The movie has an air of familiarity to it, drugs, prostitution, homelessness have all been covered before (in the aforementioned Taxi Driver, for example), and the central point of view is highly reminiscent of the earlier film, 400 Blows. It also lacks the beauty of film-making that went into the latter Slumdog Millionaire (although there were a few scenes of visual and visceral cleverness). However, if one were looking to watch a film about the impoverished life on the streets of India, this would be the one to watch. It will stay with you for awhile.
  • rubystevens
    February 17, 2009
    rubystevens
    with slumdog millionaire perhaps set to win an academy award for best picture, it's a good time to check out mira nair's 1988 feature, salaam bombay, which makes slumdog look even more like a sugar-coated fairytale. the film used real street kids in a powerful drama about their ... read morepoverty-stricken lives among drug addicts and prostitutes. like boyle's current film, it was criticized for showing a side of india some would rather not be seen. the film won many awards, drew attention to forgotten street children and raised money for a trust to help kids all over india. it may not have the feel good ending of slumdog but it's effects have been long lasting for it's subjects.
  • DrBenway
    January 20, 2009
    DrBenway
    In the light of Slumdog Millionaire receiving praise, Salaam Bombay was recommended to me to compare in contrast. This is a remarkable Indian film directed by Mira Nair depicting the plight of Krishna, a ten-year-old boy. After being thrown out by his family and abandoned by new... read more friends in a traveling circus, this resourceful youth winds up in Bombay's red-light district. Tutored by a drug addict and a prostitute, Krishna learns how to survive in the streets of the dirty and crowded city.

    What's different about this one, is that it doesn't romanticize the life these children live. It manages a sympathetic portrait of life among the pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and street people of Bombay without minimizing the horrors of their existence and without being completely depressing. It manages this by keeping focus on the good impulses of the not-yet-completely-corrupted children and the way they bond and try to help one another, and by not completely closing off the possibility that they will, somehow, be able to escape. Krishna's hope is to get enough money to go home, but his compassion for his friends, his naivete, and his efforts to help others get free make that goal an elusive one. Highly recommended.
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  • binky013
    March 30, 2007
    binky013
    Salaam Bombay! is a stark portrait of life on the streets for India's homeless children. This film is dedicated to these children and serves as a scathing indictment of India's neglect of them. I would guess that the Bombay Better Business Bureau, India Visitor's Bureau,... read more and the Indian Departments of Human Services and Health and Social Welfare have not welcomed this film with open arms.

    Salaam Bombay! is another one, flixsters, where you had better be in a pretty upbeat mood if you're going to watch. It is tragic, and Shafiq Syed's loss of whatever approximation of childhood he may have had, his move from innocence to dark experience, magnificently symbolized by his inability to play with the top after the stabbing scene, is devastating.
  • Dracula787
    May 22, 2009
    Dracula787
    The debut film from the acclaimed western transplanted Indian filmmaker Mira nair. This is a tough movie which I suspect was intended for western markets, it shows the streets of the Bombay red light district from the eyes of homeless children. Basically it?s Slumdog Millionair... read moree without the game show fairytale ending. It?s very interesting and uncompromising.
  • MisterMarvelous
    June 10, 2007
    MisterMarvelous
    I thought this was great. It's one of those films that grows on you and lingers in your thoughts long after you watch it. Heartbreaking and insightful drama about a young boy and his group of friends who are homeless and live on the streets of Bombay. Definetly worth checking out.

View All Salaam Bombay! Reviews

Critic Reviews

Leslie Camhi
February 5, 2002
Leslie Camhi, Village Voice

The director's experience making documentaries served her well as she worked for weeks with the kids who inhabit Bombay's backstreets. Full Review

Rita Kempley
January 1, 2000
Rita Kempley, Washington Post

A savvy, unsentimentalized first feature by director Mira Nair. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Nair has been able to make a film that has the everyday, unforced reality of documentary, and yet the emotional power of great drama. Full Review

John A. Nesbit
May 28, 2008
John A. Nesbit, Old School Reviews

honest and haunting portrait Full Review

Emanuel Levy
October 4, 2006
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Nair's debut, winner of Cannes Festival Camera d'Or, tells the harrowing story of one boy's life among thieves, prostitutes and drug dealers. Though inspired by De Sica, Babenco, and Ray, it acheves d... Full Review

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
August 28, 2004
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

Will take your breathe away with its harrowing portrait of the deprivations endured by a hungry and homeless boy. Full Review

Dan Lybarger
July 2, 2003
Dan Lybarger, Nitrate Online

Mira Nair's feature debut is a moving and powerful look at people for whom survival itself is a major achievement.

March 26, 2009
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 20, 2003
Vincent Canby, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Michael Szymanski
October 15, 2005
Michael Szymanski, Zap2it.com

No review available.

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