Salaam Bombay!

Name: Salaam Bombay!
Genre: Drama, Crime
Released: October 7, 1988
Duration: 113 min
Rating: 79

1988

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Ratings

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7.4

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7.4	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Cinecom Pictures | Release Date: October 7, 1988 | Not Rated

Summary: Young Krishna struggles to survive among the drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes in the back alleys of India.

Director: Mira Nair

Genre(s): Drama, Crime

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 113 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Roger Ebert

Using Syed and shooting on actual locations in Bombay, director Mira Nair has been able to make a film that has the everyday, unforced reality of documentary, and yet the emotional power of great drama. “Salaam Bombay!” is one of the best films of the year. Read full review

Jay Carr

Nair, to her credit, doesn't succumb to any special pleading, which deepens her film's impact. Time and again, you sense that she and her subjects come from a place that believes in film, as "Salaam, Bombay" specifies its world and compels us to inhabit it. [15 Sep 1988, p.68]

Ted Shen

The film is unsparingly gritty, but with a woman's tenderness it also grants the characters an occasional moment of grace. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

What strikes you is not simply its energy and vitality and its Dickensian storytelling appetite, but its fierce unsentimentality. Read full review

David Sterritt

The story sometimes seems hesitant to confront the most harrowing implications of the harsh realities it portrays. But it benefits greatly from Syed's close-to-the-bone performance as the boy. Read full review

Bill Cosford

What Salaam Bombay! thus lacks in polish it makes up for with deadpan authenticity. Watching the film is like being a witness to an event that is dark, intimate and frightening. There's something voyeuristic about the experience, and something deeply compelling as well. [17 Mar 1989, p.6]

Staff (Not Credited)

Director Mira Nair indulges in some melodramatic explorations, however, dangerously verging on a romanticized Oriental tearjerker mood. Read full review

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User Reviews

phxsikh

May 11, 2011

It's reality, that is the key element in the film, making it an excellent film. It doesn't posess any Bollywood "flavor" but it contains an amazing story.

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alejandro970

Jul 25, 2020

The odyssey of a familyless boy who seeks to raise, in Mumbai, the money he needs to reunite with his mother. One of the largest cities in India, portrayed as is, in which orphans, beggars and prostitutes do what they can to survive. The plot is magnetic and the final act, an open hand slap.The odyssey of a familyless boy who seeks to raise, in Mumbai, the money he needs to reunite with his mother. One of the largest cities in India, portrayed as is, in which orphans, beggars and prostitutes do what they can to survive. The plot is magnetic and the final act, an open hand slap. To know the Hindu cinema before Bollywood.… Expand

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