Salaam Bombay!

Plot summary

Before the start of the film, Krishna has set fire to his bullying elder brothers motor-bike. This has landed him in big trouble with his mother. She has taken him to the nearby Apollo Circus and told him that he can only come home when he earns 500 rupees to pay for the damaged bike, Krishna agrees and works for the circus.

The film begins as the circus is packing up to move on, his boss asks him to run an errand, when Krishna returns, he finds that the circus has left. Alone, with nowhere to turn, and without the money to repay his mother, he travels to the nearest big city, Bombay. As soon as he arrives, he is robbed of his few possessions. He follows the thieves, befriends them, and ends up in the citys notorious red-light area of Falkland Road, near the Grant Road Railway Station.

One of the thieves, Chillum, a drug pusher and addict, helps Krishna get a job at the Grant Road Tea Stall. Baba a local drug dealer employs people like Chillum who are addicted to his drugs. His wife is also a prostitute and they have a daughter. Babas wife is annoyed that she has to raise her daughter in such an environment, Baba having earlier promised to start a new life elsewhere, a promise which Baba cannot, or has no intention of fulfilling.

Krishna gets a new name, "Chaipau", and learns to live with it. His goal is still to get the money he needs to return home to his mother, but he soon finds out that saving money in his surroundings with the people near him is next to impossible. To make matters worse, he has a crush on a young prostitute named Sola Saal. He sets fire to her room and attempts to escape with her, but the two are caught. Sola Saal who has been brought forcefully into the business is very adamant. The madam of the house ask Baba to break her into the business, which Baba agrees to do for her.

The fire gets Krishna a severe beating, and he loses his job. He works odd jobs to feed himself and look after Chillum, who cant live without drugs. To get more money, Krishna and his pals rob an elderly Parsi man by breaking into his house in broad daylight. Chillum dies and the 300 rupees Krishna has saved is stolen.

One night while returning home from work, the boys and Babas daughter are apprehended by the police and taken to a juvenile home. Eventually, Krishna escapes and goes back to his world. He finds a new recruit in Babas drug business has taken Chillums place and name. Babas wife is told that the autorities will not release their daughter, because the mother is a prostitute. Krishna meets Sola Saal and tries to convince her to run away with him. Here she reveals that she is charmed by Baba and not interested in Krishna, she is driven away to service her first client. In a fit of rage Krishna goes and kills Baba, returning to his life of drug-pushers, pimps and prostitutes, still nurturing his dream of one day returning to his mother.

Cast

Production

Most of the young actors who appeared in Salaam Bombay! were actual street children. They received dramatic training at a special workshop in Bombay before they appeared in the film. In 1989, director Mira Nair established an organization called the Salaam Baalak Trust, to rehabilitate the children who appeared in the film. Most of them were eventually helped. The Trust is still in existence, and now lends support to street children in Bombay, Delhi and Bhubaneshwar. Shafiq Syed, who played the role of Krishna in the movie now earns his living as an autorickshaw driver in Bangalore.

Won

Nominated

Box office

Salaam Bombay! earned $2,080,046 in the United States and Canada.