So what would you know? Hindi movies under 3hrs do exist!

But jokes aside, this was my second film by Mira Nair, and while it didn't quite hold my attention like the first one, I ended up liking it very much. It's a great coming-of-age film about a kid who has to pay his way back home after wrecking some family's property and being sent out by his mother. This proves to be a challenging undertaking, forcing him to basically set out on an odyssey that the film's director and co-writer employ to examine and comment on contemporary society and the lives of many people.

All of the actors do a fantastic job, but Syed truly stands out for his…

The bright sunshine that pervades this film makes it hard to truly grasp how dark it is. There's quite a bit going on here (none of it very happy). First, there is the simple tale of a child adrift without his mother. Second, there is the story of the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Third, there is a depiction of the ad hoc communities that arise from the most adverse conditions. Fourth, there is a quiet condemnation of a system that has no room to help those in need. Perhaps there are more, but these are the ones I wish to note.

There are studies that show that children with one parent--mom or dad--are just as happy as those…

Banished. Abandoned. Forgotten.

On a one-way ticket to the City of Dreams. The village he holds so dear seems like a distant dream from the streets of Mumbai he now calls home; a community of beggars, sex workers, drug dealers, and pimps. Fleeting connections that disintegrate into dust for people either die, or are separated - by the system, the streets, or adults that run said streets.

"So, you think you can go back to the sweet village air?"

Dreams were supposed to be fulfilled in this city that feels like one big jail housing countless jails within; you have the entire city to yourself, but the ceiling that's been put on you is low enough to break your bones…

Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair clearly snatched some pages out of the film manuals of Vittorio De Sica and Satyajit Ray for her debut feature Salaam Bombay.

It's wonderfully constructed on the backbone of intense naturalism as it glimpses the lives of numerous characters, with the interlinking thread being a child named Krishna (Shafiq Syed), who becomes abandoned at a circus by his mother. She insists that he earns enough money to pay back his bullying elder brother after he sets fire to his motorbike in a moment of revenge before he thinks about returning home. 

Soon Krishna finds himself alone as the circus leaves town without him, so buying a ticket with the small amount of money he has, he…

Italian neorealism certainly comes to mind, though it’s best described as a sibling to Pixote, in its approach to childhood in the slums (and escape scenes). Both films strip their young protagonists of innocence from its opening frame, though Salaam Bombay! manages to maintain a sense of grace throughout. Mira Nair was always that lowkey art house Indian director to me; seeing The Namesake with an immediate impression, that this film doesn’t have an inch of Bollywood to it. While Bombay! indulges in melodrama, it completely fits the setting and circumstances of the characters. Any movie with a young Irrfan Khan gets an A. It’s very fitting that he ended up in Slumdog Millionaire, a film very much in debt…

Among the poverty-stricken streets of Bombay, Chaipau spins his spinning top. Round and round it goes. Circling without a destination in sight. Dizzy.

This street kid wasn't meant to be here though. As a response to a seemingly insignificant childhood faux-pas, he is unceremoniously dumped at the local circus to make a little money and pay back his brother before returning home. That was a long time ago. A time when he was called Krishna, and he was still a child.

Now known as Chaipau, he flits among the streets. Hanging with the ruffians of this sprawling place and trying to save a little each day in the hope that one day... maybe one day.

We get to see this…

Salaam Bombay cleverly manages to show the horrors and hardships of life on the streets for Bombay's kids without being exploitative. It's because the characters are fully realised and their experiences never seem to be included merely to make them suffer or grow.

Krishna is played so well by Shafiq Syed and his performance was funny, earnest and heartbreaking. His continual bad luck would have been torture for the viewer in a lesser film but although sad, and despite the ending being negative for every single character, it couldn't be described as grim. You come out with respect and sympathy for the characters and I really do want to know what happens to Krishna next. I so hope he hasn't…