Salaam Bombay! (1988)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Mira Nair

Writers:

Mira Nair (story)
Sooni Taraporevala (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

7 October 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

The story of Krishna, Manju, Chillum and the other children on the streets of Bombay. Sometimes they can get a temporary job sellng tea...

Plot Keywords:

Bombay | Job | Tea | Prostitute | Drugs

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 8 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Shafiq Syed	...	Krishna / Chaipau
Hansa Vithal	...	Manju Golub
Chanda Sharma	...	Sola Saal
Raghuvir Yadav	...	Chillum (as Raghubir Yadav)
Anita Kanwar	...	Rekha Golub (as Aneeta Kanwar)
Nana Patekar	...	Baba Golub
Anjaan	...	Child at the circus
Amrit Patel	...	Circus Boss
Murari Sharma	...	Ticket Seller
Ram Moorti	...	Mad Man
Sarfuddin Qureshi	...	Koyla (as Sarfuddin Quarassi)
Raju Barnad	...	Keera
Irshad Hashmi
Mohanraj Babu	...	Salim
Chandrashekhar Naidu	...	Chungal
Krishna Thapa		(as Kishan Thapa)
Shaukat Azmi	...	Bordal owner
Haneef Zahoor
Jamila	...	Woman at the bordal
Ramesh Rai	...	Barber
Shaukat H. Inamdar
Irrfan Khan	...	Letter writer
Neil Gettinger	...	Uncle Sam
Yunus Parvez
Habib Azmi	...	Ganga smoker
Ramesh Goyal		(as Ramesh Gohil)
Sanjana Kapoor	...	Western Journalist (as Sanjna Kapoor)
Biswadeep Chatterjee
Ameer		(as Ameer Bhai)
Ajju Kasam
Double Battery Stafford	...	Woman at the cinema
Rana Singh	...	Old man at the cinema
Ali		(as Ali Bhai)
Dinshaw Daji
Jayant Joshi
Prashant Jaiswal	...	Wedding Singer
Joyce Barneto	...	Bride
Hassan Kutty	...	Spouse
Preshit Shringarpure
B.D. Sharma
Mohammed Ali
Dilip Das
Alfred Anthony
Ramesh Deshavani
Anjan Srivastav		(as Anjan Srivastava)
Eric Paymaster
Sulabha Deshpande	...	Social Worker at Juvenile Centre (as Sulbha Deshpande)
Mohan Tantaru
Sheikh Haroon

Directed by
Mira Nair

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Mira Nair		story
Sooni Taraporevala		screenplay
Sooni Taraporevala		story

Produced by
Gabriel Auer	....	executive producer
Mira Nair	....	producer

Original Music by
L. Subramaniam

Cinematography by
Sandi Sissel

Film Editing by
Barry Alexander Brown

Casting by
Hassan Kutty

Production Design by
Mitch Epstein

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Hassan Kutty	....	first assistant director

Sound Department
Margaret Crimmins	....	supervising sound editor
Jonathan Liebling	....	foley artist
Mary Ellen Porto	....	sound editor

Editorial Department
Tula Goenka	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Emil Richards	....	musician: percussion
L. Subramaniam	....	conductor
L. Subramaniam	....	music arranger
L. Subramaniam	....	musician: violin
Ernie Watts	....	musician: horns
Jerry Watts Jr.	....	musician: bass

Thanks
Jehangir Choudhary	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Cadragee
• Channel Four Films
• Doordarshan
• Forum Films (co-production)
• La Sept Cinéma
• Mirabai Films
• National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC)

Distributors

• Cinecom Pictures (1988) (USA) (theatrical)
• Filmax Home Video (2006) (Spain) (DVD)
• Manuel Salvador
• Transmundo Films (Argentina)
• Transmundo Home Video (THV) (Argentina) (video)
• Universum Film (UFA) (2005) (Germany) (DVD) (Special Edition)

Also Known As:

Salaam Bombay! (France)

Runtime:

113 min | UK:109 min | Argentina:112 min

Country:

UK | India | France

Language:

Hindi | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Nova Scotia) | Australia:M | Iceland:L | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Sweden:11 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

Cadragee

Trivia:

Most of the young actors who appeared in the film were actual street children. They received dramatic training at a special workshop in Bombay before they appeared in the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: Krishna starts off with eight glasses of tea. One glass is broken by Sweet Sixteen when he offers her a drink. He is then seen walking back to the tea stand with eight full glasses, but when he gets back he has seven empty glasses.

Quotes:

Rekha Golub: [To Baba] Just like a customer.

Movie Connections:

References Mother India (1957)

A story of lost innocence

Like the 'Square Circle' which came after it, Mira Nair's film is a wonderful counterpoint to traditional Bollywood cinema, depicting issues that many in India would like conveniently swept under the carpet. Filled with humanity and compassion, the film does have a parallel with Bollywood dramas as it too is about 'escapism'. However, the story shows how these dreams are illusory; the silent 'Sweet Sixteen' showing her romantic photograph - a pretence - as her brothel madam hawks her virginity to a prospective buyer; Krishna's hopes of being forgiven and returning home to his family; the prostitute Rekha's hopes of a 'family life' with the pimp Baba.

I particularly liked the way Nair paralleled childhood innocence with adult cynicism and cruelty. The final scene where Krishna the teaboy weeps for his lost innocence and at what he has become is very moving; like the drug-addict Chillum, he has 'forgotten' how he first came to Bombay and now only sees a life of despair and suffering.