Critically Acclaimed, Salaam Bombay, Gives The Gen-Z A Reality Check

I am a creative head and films are my passion.…

The making of Salaam Bombay is as interesting as the film’s plot line itself. Mira Nair’s conversations with kids regarding their life experiences, challenges and ordeals living in Bombay Ki Galiyan gave rise to a full-fledged screenplay of underrated pearl Salaam Bombay.

Mira Nair decided to make a feature film out of the interviews and talks with these kids. Workshops were set up for kids (not an acting workshop) to make them not act but be natural and behave realistically around cameras. The movie was released in 1988. It’s been critically acclaimed, universally!

The Story Of Salaam Bombay

Syed is a kid named Chaipau who works in a circus. One day he is sent on a task to get a few cigarettes from an adjoining town. Circus has disappeared as he comes back.
He goes to a nearby town and takes a train to Bombay, following some half-framed strategy to get back to his area and mom, who sold the kid to the circus company.
However, Chaipau can’t read or write, leading him to forget the name of his village.
He accidentally reaches the city of Bombay, where thousands of kids live and survive poverty.

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The Characters In Salaam Bombay

Chaipau is an insightful kid, tough and sharp. He gets a new line of work as a sprinter for a man who runs a tea-stall down the road. Chaipau’s responsibility is to race up trips of apartment steps with a plate of tea. In the apartments, he finds a universe of poverty, sweatshops, prostitution and medication managing.
One of the companions he makes is a 16-year-old girl who was sold or captured away from her local town. She’s held hostage by a greedy madam who intends to offer her virginity to the most elevated bidder.
Different characters in the area incorporate a sad alcoholic and someone who is addicted, who gets to know the kids quite well.

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The Direction Of Salaam Bombay

Mira Nair inaugurated a trend that let people be the actor and not the other way around.
The biggest compliment Nair deserves is her ability to not patronize or portray the characters in an artificial way.
The lenses of Nair’s camera are unabashedly substantial and will make you anxious.
Mira Nair does not leave the objectification or judgments to her characters, coming from a slightly different (comparatively privileged) part of society.
She delivers the final verdict of the character analysis to the audience only.

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Did You Know?

The majority of its scenes were shot in reallocation.
Hidden cams or miniature cams embarked on their arrival through this film. Later Anurag and Ram Gopal Verma used it.
It is the only film to get nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film Category after the legendary “Mother India”.
It was previously called “Chal Bombay Chal”.
Irrfan Khan had a special appearance in the film as a writer.