| | Salaam Bombay! |  | Director: Mira Nair
Actors: Shafiq Syed, Hansa Vithal, Chanda Sharma, Raghuvir Yadav, Anita Kanwar
Category: DVD
Buy New: $11.40
New (2) from $11.40
Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 79906
Format: Pal
Languages: English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Hindi (Original Language)
Running Time: 113
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5014138295882
ASIN: B000065UH1
Theatrical Release Date: October 7, 1988
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Salaam Bombay July 9, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Former documentarist Mira Nair's angry, disconsolate, and deeply moving drama about poverty and child homelessness in India was shot on location and stars a cast of non-actors the director recruited from Bombay slums. Like De Sica and other Italian neorealists, Nair focuses with unblinking tenderness on the blighted lives of her protagonists, juxtaposing Krishna's squalid existence with the lush extravagance of the Bollywood musicals he so enjoys. Great performances, affecting imagery, and a heartbreaking plotline deservedly won "Salaam" worldwide acclaim.
Resilient and Resourceful Children July 4, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm glad I bought this - wouldn't have missed it for the world. The fact that it's a docu-drama makes it all the more watchable - you know a lot of the children are really street kids in India, not trained actors. The kids' innocence, trust, devilishness, loyalty, and resilience will break your heart. The special features also reveal plenty of interesting, amusing and heartwarming titbits. I've already watched it twice, and I'll defintely watch it again, if only just to remind myself that people can do so much with so little at hand.
Great edition of this -must have- movie January 5, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is fantastic movie with such a warm and moving story. This edition includes director naration options as well as the director of photography. It is very interesting to watch this movie a second and third time listening to their narration of events during the making of this classic.
Life for Homeless Children on the Streets of Bombay November 6, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mira Nair shows the realities of living on the streets in Bombay where children sleep under bridges and sell tea to the prostitutes in brothels as they try to earn money to live from day to day ... Primarily, the film revolves around Krishna, a young boy of 11 years, who left his village to work on the streets of Bombay to earn 500 rupees to pay back his brother, whose bicycle he destroyed. He becomes part of a group of kids who hang out together and look out for one another ... They associate with drug dealers and prostitutes. While the film does show how drugs can destroy lives and how young innocent girls are lured into prostitution there is also a truthfulness and innocence which is conveyed ... The film depicts how the kids survive amidst poverty and how they manage to create a sustainable lifestyle with some semblance of happiness and a wonder for life despite having next to nothing in a material sense.
One of the best extra features on this DVD is the commentary by the director. Mira Nair provides insights into how many of the unique scenes were shot. She discusses particular angles and views used by the camera to capture the pure honesty of this lifestyle. She also describes difficulties encountered and how they were resolved, the major one was meeting the budget, the other was was getting big name actors and actresses for the key roles. Fortunately the subject matter was of such importance, a large British studio Filfour agreed to help fund the project if Ms Nair could raise 51% of the budget herself. Another plus was, the subject of the film was deemed a "governement film" and therefore she received funds as well as access to areas which otherwise would be denied, such as the children's home where street kids were taken after arrested. Ms Nair managed to get a popular male stage actor who had never done films to play one of the lead roles and to her delight, he has since become one of India's most famous leading male film actors. She also snared a popular female television soap opera star to play the female lead ...
One of the most unusual but appealing elements in this film is how Ms Nair used actual street children to be the key actors in the film. She held auditions and made selections then held seven week long workshops where they learned their parts via pictures of scenes which they memorized. Another captivating aspect of this film is how real streets with shop keepers and shoppers were filmed along with the real train station and the natural activities which fit the storyline of the film. This film is a magnificent study of a way of life that few people can imagine but it is all too common in poverty stricken areas of the world. Through this film, Mira Nair has brought the attention of the world to the plight of homeless children in India. She has made a great contribution to improving their lives on many levels. Due to her efforts, trusts have been established in Bombay and other major cities to educate and assist these children. The film itself is a mix of documentary and fiction which captures the intimate details of their reality in vivid color, detail, and honesty. This is a most highly recommended film. Erika Borsos {pepper flower}
a brilliant debut for Mira Nair...... November 29, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Salaam Bombay, the critically acclaimed, award-winning film debut, for director and producer, Mira Nair, lives on as a timeless ode to the poverty, hopelessness and tragedy of young street kids, and other residents of the ghettos of Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Nair clearly did her research, for this film, manages to bring out stunningly powerful acting in her young actors (particularly, the lead actor, Shafiq Sayed, as Krishna), and leaves us with haunting and cautionary imagery of the sad reality of street life.
Krishna is a young, uneducated Indian boy, from a small village, who ventures out into Bombay, via train, when he must repay 500 rupees to his family, for reasons that aren't clear to us. He ends up in the one of the poorest, most desolate sections of town, amongst the street urchins and prostitutes. What start out as a transitional living space, for him, and lifestyle (as he makes his money, selling chai), becomes all the more permanent and--ultimately--impossible. He encounters Chillum, a drugdealer he befriends, who starts out as an ally, but whose character and relationship to him changes overtime. He also meets Manju, the daughter of a prostitute, so young and, yet, already so exposed to the darker side of life.
As the film progresses, we forget that these children are acting, and this is a recreation of real-life events. It is amazing, thought-provoking and ultimately heartbreaking......This was only the beginning, for Nair, who has gone on to have a remarkable and brilliant body of work...
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