Salaam Bombay! (1988)

Director:

Mira Nair

Writers:

Mira Nair (story)
Sooni Taraporevala (screenplay)

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:

Job | Bombay | Tea | Drugs | Police

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

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:

Referenced in Scenes from a Mall (1991)

Haunting - more people should see it

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.