Reviews & Ratings for
Bombay More at IMDbPro »Bumbai (original title)

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21 reviews in total

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27 out of 31 people found the following review useful:
Strong Strong Strong, a wonderful movie..., 21 July 2002

Author: jonasjobbar from Stockholm

Begins like a silly Indian love/dance movie and develops into the strongest, most emotional movie I have ever seen. I saw it in the Gothenburg film festival and I saw couples holding each other after the film finished (comforting each other) and a guy asked: " Do they have a crisis center set up to help us deal with the movie now?". Religious tensions and human conflicts is a hard subject (doing the right vs the wrong thing), wonderfully dealt with in this movie. A strong argument for peace and a colorful tale of recent Indian history. See it.

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16 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
By Far One of the Best Hindi Films I've Seen, 7 November 2003
Author: punit04 from Los Angeles, USA

This is a truly beautiful film. The story is essentially this: a Hindu man and a Muslim woman from a small village in India fall in love and decide to marry. The villagers disapprove of this marriage to the point that they are ready to incite a riot. Given the circumstances, the man and woman elope to Mumbai (Bombay.)

Everything is okay there, and the two have twins, Kamal Bano and Kabir Narayan (the names are a mix of Hindu and Muslim, to represent their heritage.) The grandfathers (while still in the village) naturally argue with each other and vow to make the children Hindu (or Muslim, depends on who wins.) Suddenly, the 1993 riots erupt, and the whole family is caught in the middle. The twins are almost burned alive, but they survive thanks to police intervention. Both grandfathers show up in Bombay (out of concern for their children and grandchildren) and continue to compete there.

When another riot ensues, and the Hindu grandfather (and grandson) are approached by a group of Muslim men, the Muslim grandfather arrives in the nick of time and tells the men "He is my brother." Later in the film, one of the twins is separated from the other and is taken in for about a day by a member of the "hijda" community (this is a community in India that is essentially composed of eunuchs or hermaphrodites, but they wear women's clothing.) In a conversation with one of the twins, the "hijda" says "Religion is a way to God." The child asks him, "Then why are all of these people killing each other?" To this the man replies, "I have no idea. And I've been thinking about it for a long time."

You don't necessarily have to be Indian to appreciate this film, but I think it helps. The underlying message is that "We (as residents of India) should be Indians first and Hindu/Muslim/whatever second. The film also conveys the message of tolerance and humanity. It is really an excellent film.

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15 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Spielberg, Listen, 4 August 2001
Author: Reini Urban (rurban@x-ray.at) from Graz, Austria

This movie is often compared to Spielberg's "Schindler's List", as the one and only movie which actually works in this context and how Spielberg could have made it to express his strong pathetic and political emotions. What a shame that "Bombay" haven't got such a big audience.

The true life epos tells us the story of the Muslim-Hindu conflict 1995 in Bombay from the viewpoint of a young Muslim-Hindu couple doomed to leave their home town and families. This movie was made in the south, in Madras, shortly after the riots, and was immediately synchronized in Bombay to Hindi for the big audience. During the next three hours (the typical hindi movie length) everything works out fine, until the last thirty minutes where the Bombay riots suddenly break up everything. Mani Ratnam is the one and only director how dares to bring a song (every Hindi movie is a musical) during the very realistic war scenes, where such a scene actually works. Scenes where you are immediately reminded to how you would have shaken your head or laughed if this was just "Schindler's List". Imagine the jews singing in the last 30 minutes. Or the Trier train dance scene (for which you have to see "Dil Se") cut to the end. Not so here. They sing about the cruelty of war. Stop fighting. Crying, laughing, singing, dying, very close together. Where Trier sinks into unbelievable and childish anti-dead sentence pathos, Ratnam is still with the people, full of positive power. Incredible. A must see from one of the most important directors world-wide.

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12 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
An excellent thoughtful film with good music, 15 September 2001

Author: raamjaane from London, United Kingdom

This is a film about the ethnic divide in India set during the 1994 Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai (Bombay).

The direction is slick, the script excellent and the songs brilliant. You will not often find an Indian Commercial film which is entertaining and has a thoughtful message.

While the ending might be idealistic and slightly unrealistic, it gives us hope that one day we will set aside our differences. The message is also not rammed down our throat, so overall go and watch this movie!

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13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Piece de resistance!!, 24 February 2001

Author: Srini from Mumbai, India

Wallah! What a movie. Shakes and stirs u till the final moment. I saw it and was amazed at how naturally ManiRathnam captures emotions and brings the whole theatre alive with Superlative Direction, Excellent Music, Super dialogues,etc.....!! Truly worth watching!!

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12 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
A perfect movie with no mistakes., 30 December 2005

Author: ganesh kumar from India

It is hard to make a good movie despite having a good story. For there are chances of making mistakes in the script or cinematography or music or direction.But Maniratnam has made a movie with no mistakes to find in it! Real magic! He did not make it that perfect even in'Thalapathi' or 'Roja' or even 'Nayagan'. Suitable music ,neat portrayal, nice story and over all a great movie!A perfect 10 to say.This deserved to win a national award, though it was not given. But still,it is the bestTamilfilm i had ever seen.Also it should have been a very big hit for its good content. A must see for all. The best from Maniratnam.I had watched it 5 times.

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12 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Bombay was Great, 11 March 2005

Author: rajikoshy from India

Bombay was something excellent, it was natural, it happened, more over every one played their part well, making it a success, even people who worked in the backstage. The Great Director choose his subjects well. Prakash Rai who was offered a small role....was excellent too..the budding star at that time.

You can also see the set, the expression of the actors who acts as the public, or who just appear once, they still do their best, you can also watch some scene where the crowd appears. great direction, he could manage all that too, we need more movies like these, we need more directors and actors like these, to make a great movie of time.

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12 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Powerful, 20 July 2004

Author: bartman_9 from Belgium

In 1992, Hindu-extremists demolished a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya, the alleged birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. This sparked ethnic violence across the country, which in Bombay alone left over 1700 people dead. To turn these events into a musical might not be everyone's idea of responsible entertainment, but director Mani Ratnam makes it happen.

The story starts out in a small South Indian village, where the young Hindu journalism student Shekar (Arvind Swami) and beautiful Muslim girl Bano (Manisha Koirala) fall head over heals in love, much to the chagrin of their respective parents. They elope to Bombay, where they get married and Shekar becomes a reporter. They have twins, which they name Kamal and Kabir, a Muslim and a Hindu name to represent their mixed heritage. They grow up and eventually their grandparents come to terms with the marriage. All seems well.

This first part is filmed in the best of Bollywood tradition with its heightened emotions, glorious song-and-dance sequences and a strong underlying eroticism. Even if you've never seen a Bollywood-movie, you know you're in familiar territory and as a viewer you're lulled in a false sense of security. And then the riots start... In brilliantly edited sequences Mani Ratnam throws all the terror and chaos of erupting religious madness in your face and what began as innocent romantic fluff becomes a gut wrenching, almost unwatchable experience as the two parents must look for their children who became lost in the confusion. A search that leads them from streets of violence to morgues overflowing with dead bodies.

Bombay is a great movie, effectively using the idiom of Hindi popular cinema to tackle a serious subject.

***1/2

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9 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
A non-biased movie, based on a real event, 29 December 1998
Author: Michael Waddell from Louisville, KY

A tragic movie about the burning of Bombay by Muslims in 1995, in retaliation for the destruction of a muslim temple (which also holy place to Hindus.) The story focuses around a Hindu-muslim couple who are caught in the violent tensions of the times. The movie attempts to tell the story from both sides of the conflict, centering around the couple involved.

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Great love story with meaningful ending., 6 July 2005

Author: Thomas Diemer (itd01@hotmail.com) from Metairie, La

This story of love and marriage between a Hindu man and Mospem woman was very well done. Even though I could not get the English subtitles to work on my DVD player, I was able to follow the plot with a little help from the package notes.

The portrayal of the Hindu/Moslem religious riots of 1992/3 was very well done. It was an excellent portrayal of the violence, horror, bloodshed and suffering in so many such acts of violence in too many time periods, for too many reasons, and between too many groups of people. The thing uppermost in my mind was how Christian fundamentalists could want to import such horrors and such suffering to the United States - but I guess Christian fundamentalists do not watch movies like this.

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