Salaam Bombay! 1988. India. Directed by Mira Nair. With Shafiq Syed, Hansa Vithal, Chanda Sharma. 35mm. In Hindi; English subtitles. 114 min.
The rough streets of Bombay are no place for children, but there they are, vying for survival alongside pimps, prostitutes, and drug addicts. At the center is young Krishna, who yearns to return to his home village but finds himself sucked deeper and deeper into this vile existence. Shooting on location with actual street kids speaking actual street language, Mira Nair brings her experience as a documentarian to her fiction debut. Unsentimental yet compassionate, this realistic portrait of the mean streets celebrates the characters’ resilience and humanity.