SALAAM BOMBAY

India/Britain, 1988, 113 minutes, Colour.
Shafiq Syed, Sarfuddin Quarassi.
Directed by Mira Nair.

Salaam Bombay is one of the most successful Indian films - in India as well as communicating to audiences around the world. It was written and directed by Mira Nair, an Indian director who was educated in the United States, at Harvard. She studied sociology and moved into documentary film-making. This is her first feature. The film was well received and was nominated for Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 1988.

The film is really a tapestry of life in Bombay, especially in the slums and amongst the poor. It shows the world of the runaways, the children's street gangs, the attempts to get jobs and save money, the world of brothels and of drug-dealing. The characters are well-drawn and persuasive. Especially persuasive is Shafiq Syed, a true runaway who was employed for the film, portraying the central character, the young boy Krishna.

The film works as a documentary look at life in Bombay in the '80s - the Hindu traditions, the poverty, the inroad of drugs, the inroads of the media, especially music on the radio, the fanaticism of Indians about cricket, and the delight in the adaptation of American musical styles of singing and dancing to India (spoofed quite heavily in the film).

The film has been likened to Hector Babenco's Pixote, also a picture of street kids in Brazil. Both films raise consciousness about the effects of poverty and the need for reform and hope in Third World countries.

1. The impact of the film? Drama, documentary? Acclaim and awards?

2. The work of the writer-director as sociologist, as documentary film-maker? Indian perspective, trained in the West, a woman's perspective? The film's appeal to the wide audience?

3. The authentic use of Bombay locations, Grant Street, the railway station, the streets, the brothel, the Children's Centre? Realism? The musical background, traditional Indian music, the modern American and western variations? (And the sequences of Indian variety shows done in the American style?)

4. The blend of reality and fiction, realism and stylised drama? The blend of both?

5. The audience looking at characters and situations through Krishna's eyes, his experience, both innocence and experience? The emotional identification and response? Intellectual understanding and judgment of situations?

6. The problems of India, its vastness, population, poverty, strata of society, evil and corruption, the inroads of drugs, religious traditions? Possibilities for change?

7. Krishna and the circus, abandoned, making his way to the city, the station and the street, his membership of the street gang? Getting a job as a tea-boy, his work, taking the cups of tea around? His encounters with a variety of people? His pride, saving his money? His hopes to go home after saving the money? Meeting with Rekha and Manju, the bonds between them, seeing them day by day, his awareness of the life of the brothel? The encounter with Sweet Sixteen? Sympathy for her, the tea? His writing the letter home and the scribe copying it - but his not knowing a sufficient address? His friendship with Chillum, the drug world, Chillum and his need for drugs, his despair, the sequence at the station, saving him - but his grief at Chillum's death? The encounters with Baba, his hostility towards him? The work, the fights with the gangs, the friendships with Manju? The elaborate wedding and the children waiting at the tables?

8. Going home from the wedding, the arrest, the interrogation by the police? Sent to the children's home? The detail of life in the home, the meals, work, recreation? Fights? The staff all watching the cricket? His escape? Finding his money stolen, his anger and fighting with the boys? Going to Rekha, seeing the confrontation with Baba - and his stabbing Baba to death? The final glimpse of him and his future?

9. The world of the street, crowds of people, vivid and alive, the shops, the people in their apartments? The children in the street? The man with the tea, his advice to Krishna, sacking him?

10. Rekha, her background as a prostitute, her life, her work? With her clients? Her relationship with Baba? Her love for Manju, the sequences at home, the intimate details of the life of mother and daughter? Her grief at Manju's being taken, getting her back? Manju's listlessness? The confrontation with Baba and his death?

11. Baba, the macho Indian, smug, working with the madam? Acquiring Sweet Sixteen? His treatment of Rekha, love for her, spurning her, using her? His disregard of Manju, harsh treatment of her? The clashes with Chillum, the drugs, his control, firing Chillum? The encounter with the interviewer, his speeches, his cruelty in whipping Chillum's legs? Taking Sweet Sixteen to the photographer, seductive with her? His confrontation with Rekha - his death?

12. Manju, her age, experience, life with her mother? The cruelty of Baba? Her friendship with Krishna? Tough, Chillum with the gift of the biscuits for Sweet Sixteen and her deceitfully eating them? Survival and street knowledge? Her arrest and the effect on her?

13. The episode with the journalist, the white journalist interested in Indian life, the translator, Baba and the interview, his arrogant manner, the answering of the questions, his demonstration of cruelty and the journalist leaving?

14. The glimpse of the clients for the prostitutes, their age, background? The availability of the women? The control of the madam? Initiating the virginal prostitutes?

15. Chillum, the drugs, dealing, the effect on him, friendship with Krishna, the bonds between them? The encounter with the tourist and getting the money - and not giving it to Baba? Baba's dismissing of him? Desperation, need for money, withdrawal symptoms, the need for drugs? Rekha and her giving him the money? His despair on the station, his death?

16. Sweet Sixteen, from Nepal, her inexperience, her fear, collapse, the treatment by the madam, by Rekha, by Baba? Krishna giving her the tea? Going to the photographer's studio with Baba and being enchanted, seduced, initiated? Her life as a prostitute in Bombay?

17. The film and the characters as a tapestry of life in Bombay?