Salaam Bombay!

Directed by Mira Nair

Written by ● Mira Nair

● Sooni
Taraporevala

Screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala

Story by Mira Nair

Produced by ● Mira Nair

● Michael Nozik

Starring ● Shafiq Syed

● Hansa Vithal
● Chanda
Sharma
● Nana Patekar
● Raghuvir
Yadav
● Anita Kanwar
● Raju Bernad

Cinematography Sandi Sissel

Edited by Barry Alexander Brown

Introduction

This outstanding Indian film, which was directed by Mira Nair, tells the story of Krishna, a
ten-year-old child, and his struggles. This savvy young man ends up in Bombay's red-light
district after being kicked out by his family and abandoned by new pals in a touring circus.
Krishna learns how to survive on the streets of the busy, filthy city from a drug addict and a
prostitute. With its heartbreaking depiction of the hardships faced by this hungry and destitute
young child who is doomed by fate, Salaam Bombay! will leave you breathless.

"Salaam Bombay! production "'s history is almost as fascinating as the finished product. The
filmmakers visited the streets, train stations, bazaars, and red-light districts where many of the
street children of Bombay lived and spoke with them about their experiences. These interviews
led to the creation of a script that was a synthesis of several lives. After that, several kids were
hired for many weeks to participate in a daily session where they were taught how to act
spontaneously in front of the camera rather than "acting," which they already knew from
countless overacted Indian cinema melodramas.

Role of the Family:

Parents play a crucial role in setting rules and expectations for their children. These rules and
expectations can influence a child's behaviour and development in a number of ways. For
example, if parents set clear boundaries and expectations for their children's behaviour, it can
help children learn self-control and self-regulation. On the other hand, if parents are
too lenient or inconsistent with their rules and expectations, it can lead to confusion and
difficulties for children in managing their behaviour.

Indian family, however, is completely different from western ways of living. The film could not
carry an Indian perspective in that sense. In fact, the movie induces people to think and be
aware of their role in a child's life.

Salam Bobay depicts the insecurity of a children’s life without parents. Without parents means
no education, no childcare, health safety, etc. However, the children's struggle eventually taught
them to survive in this cruel world. Even then, the kids remained illiterate and could not even go
to his parent's house by reading the sign boards. More than that the kid was emotionally broken
from the inside. The film depicts the insecurities of the child and how desperate he was to go to
his parent's house so that he can get some emotional support.

What's worse is that the narrative leads to a wholly incorrect understanding of the issue. The
issue of families abandoning their children is discussed in the movie, as well as the state's
authoritarian interference in family life by removing kids from "dysfunctional" homes. The
audience in the west is familiar with this scenario, which is translated into the Indian context. It
may be the furthest away from the root of the issues India's street children face. While Nair's
plot succeeds in keeping the story moving, it fails because it only provides a symptomatic
interpretation of poverty or misery.

Role of the society:

The community in which a child grows up can also set expectations and rules that can influence
a child's development. For example, the community may have expectations for children's
behaviour in public spaces or may have rules that regulate activities such as playing sports or
using public facilities. These expectations and rules can help children learn about appropriate
behaviour in different settings and can also contribute to their overall development.

The first is the opening scene, which establishes Krishna's nowhereness as Chaipau, the circus
team's messenger boy who is left behind while completing his menial labour. While running an
errand for the boss, he is left behind in a foreign town. The transient nature of his life is
established by the complete disappearance of his body, identity, and life.

Their lack of social validation is not only demonstrated by the fact that they lack homes and
sleep on the streets; it is also demonstrated by the fact that they are unable to secure the
financial resources that would enable them to change who they are and live important,
noteworthy, inspiring lives.

Role of the government:

Manju, the prostitute's daughter, and Krishna are arrested by the police and sent to a state
detention facility in a scene near the end of the movie. In a similar vein to how Krishna has
already lost his family, Manju is taken away from the prostitute (against the wishes of her
mother). This loss of family, which the film emphasises constantly, is astounding, especially
when contrasted with social reality. State institutions, whether philanthropic or penal, are
overburdened and stretched because they are consistently underfunded, understaffed, and
underpaid, not because they intentionally collect up children from the streets. The section that
chronicles Krishna's misadventures in the state-run prison facility seems to have been inserted
to highlight the appalling circumstances of state institutions, which are meant to serve as an
option for these kids to live on the streets.

However, director Nair again only scratches the surface of a complicated subject that involves
minors, criminals, the law, and coercive reform initiatives like "juvenile" detention facilities. If the
Indian government is to be blamed for its treatment of children, it is not for its sympathetic and
paternalistic interventions in family matters but rather for its complete lack of concern for policing
both large and small employers for their flagrant violations of labour laws, the use of child
labour, and the failure to hold them accountable for their well-documented wrongdoing in this
regard. SALAAM BOMBAY! criticises the state and family for their harsh treatment of children,
but is that really the root of the child labour issue?

Education of Children:

Children confront significant obstacles to work and earning potential later in life without receiving
a high-quality education. They are less likely to engage in decisions that impact them and more
likely to experience negative health consequences, which endangers their ability to influence
society and themselves for the better.

Director Nair could have avoided the somewhat flimsy depiction of children being abandoned by
their parents and having to live as orphans if she had taken a more analytical approach.
Realistic parents would be those who see their kids as assets to the family and their labour as a
crucial source of revenue rather than those who forsake them. Particularly, this rural migrant
family custom is transferred to the capitalist relations of the metropolis, turning children into a
source of accessible, cheap labour. Poor rural immigrant households do not view education as a
means of gaining upward mobility for their children. The focus is on merely surviving.

Story of the film:

In retribution for being bullied by his older brother, Krishna set fire to his motorcycle before the
movie even started. He was escorted to the adjacent Apollo Circus by his enraged mother, who
told him that he could only return home after earning 500 rupees to cover the cost of the
damage. Krishna accepts and begins employment with the circus.

The movie starts as the circus is preparing to leave for its new location. When Krishna returns
from the errand his boss asked him to run, the circus has already left. He sets out for Bombay,
the closest large city, alone, with nowhere else to turn and no money to pay back his mother. He
is immediately robbed of his little belongings after arriving. He pursues the robbers, becomes
friends with them, and eventually finds himself in the infamous red-light district of Falkland
Road, close to Grant Road Railway Station.

Krishna is assisted in obtaining employment at the Grant Road Tea Stall by one of the thieves,
Chillum, a drug peddler and addict, who also serves as a mentor to Krishna. Local drug dealer
Baba works with addicts like Chillum. Rekha, Baba's wife, is a prostitute, and the couple has a
young girl named Manju. Rekha finds it frustrating that she must bring up her child in such
circumstances. Baba had vowed to start a new life somewhere else, but Baba is unable or
unwilling to keep this promise.

Krishna accepts his new name, "Chaipau," and grows accustomed to it. His objective is still to
acquire the funds required to return home, but he quickly learns that doing so in his new
environment is nearly impossible. The situation is made worse by the fact that he has feelings
for Sola Saal, a young girl who was only just sold to a brothel. He lights her room on fire and
makes an escape attempt with her, but they are apprehended. Krishna is severely beaten as a
result of the fire, but Sola Saal, who is prized for her virginity, vehemently protests her captivity
and claims she did not set the fire. The madame of the house asks Baba to "tame her," which
Baba agrees to do.

While Chillum cannot exist without drugs, especially after being fired by Baba following a
humiliating interview with a foreign journalist, Krishna takes odd jobs to save some money and
assist Chillum. Krishna eventually loses his job at the tea shop due to one of these odd jobs.
Krishna and his friends break into an elderly Parsi man's home in broad daylight to rob him of
additional money. Krishna soon learns that Chillum had taken the money he had saved to buy
drugs, which he had fatally overdosed on.

Krishna and Manju are detained by the police one evening as they ride home from work with
friends. They are then brought to a juvenile facility. Krishna eventually makes it out and returns
to his home planet. He discovers that Chillum's position and name have been usurped by a new
hire in Baba's narcotics operation. When Krishna encounters Sola Saal, he tries to persuade her
to flee with him. She admits that Baba has won her over, and she has lost interest in Krishna.
She is compelled to leave in order to serve her first "customer." Rekha is informed that the
mother of their daughter is a prostitute, hence the authorities would not release the child. Rekha
decides to leave Baba out of rage, but Baba beats her as payback. Krishna steps in just in time
to save her. In a fit of wrath, he kills Baba and tries to flee with Rekha, but they get separated
during a Ganesh parade. The movie finishes with a gradual zoom-in on Krishna's forlorn face as
he is returned to the same reality from the beginning.

Conclusion:

The film helps people to understand the perspective of people on street children. More than that
the struggle of children without the support of family, society, or government leads to
unimaginable misery in life. This also helps us to think about the role of family, society, and
government.

What should be done about these youngsters is one of the problems raised by the movie, but it
is not addressed. However, that doesn't seem to be the solution, and we are left with the
unsettling impression that in Bombay, at any rate, the children appear to fare better on the
streets. At one point, Chaipau and a few of his friends are rounded up by the police and herded
into a large institution that combines the worst features of an orphanage and a prison. There
they have an identity and a measure of hope. Of course, in the best of possible worlds
something would be "done" about them, but "Salaam Bombay!" takes place far from such a
world, and the movie is about children doing the best they can for themselves.