The boy Krishna (Shafiq Syed) is abandoned by his mother at the Apollo Circus and she tells him that he can only return home when he can afford 500 rupees to pay for the bicycle of his brother that he had trashed. Krishna is left behind by the circus and he takes a train to Bombay. Krishna is called Chaipau by the street children of Bombay and he works delivering and selling tea for Chacha (Irshad Hashmi), who owns a street bar. Krishna befriends the heroin addicted Chillum (Raghubir Yadav) that sells drugs for the drug dealer and caftan Baba Golub (Nana Patekar), and the girl Manju Golub (Hansa Vithal), who is the daughter of Baba with the prostitute Rekha Golub (Aneeta Kanwar). Krishna dreams on saving 500 rupees to return home, but the life on the streets of Bombay is not easy."Salaam Bombay!" is the first feature by the Indian director Mira Nair, who became famous in Brazil with the also excellent "Monsoon Wedding". The heartbreaking story follows the saga and the lost of the innocence of the boy Krishna on the streets of Bombay and is very similar to the one of Pedro ("Los Olvidados" - 1950) on the streets of Mexico City; or Pixote ("Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco" – 1981) on the streets of São Paulo; or the anonymous street kids ("Ali Zaoua, Prince de la Rue" – 2000) on the streets of Casablanca. The documentary style is impressive but easy to understand based on the previous career of Mira Nair.The problem with abandoned children of Third World countries is a sad reality along decades and shameful governments usually transfer the money that could solve or at least improve this social problem to corruption. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): Not Available

Watching this film made me see some unknown part of life. part of life which we people writing review here don't know. I cried for half an hour. The ending of the movie was one the saddest scene i have ever seen in any movie. This movie deserves more. Wnen i told my friends about the film they seemed amazed. All are busy watching cheap faulty movies with item songs. Peoples should watch this type of movies more. Indians really don't like this type of movies. They want sexy girl dancing. Do watch it. Will a life changing experience. Loved it... one of the best movies out there.

This is your gritty, eye opening, edge of your seat film. If you want to know what the life of the slum is about, then watch this movie.Danny Boyle's commercialisation take on this issue took away the real hardship faced everyday by the people in the slums.The grainy, in your face approach of this film is what makes it genuine to its purpose. This is the real deal and there isn't a big budget in sight. I have always enjoyed Mira Nair's work, having watched Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding and this, her work is poetic in execution and flow. The objective set out to be explained is true to its soul and always believable plots are used.It is not a quirky, forgetful film, but a film that is different and yet can hold your attention.

The debut feature by Indian filmmaker Mira Nair is a near-seamless blend of social documentary and coming-of-age dramatics, with the uncompromising honesty of the former combined to all the creative emotion of the latter. In this case the end of innocence doesn't present an easy rite of passage for Nair's young protagonist: a resourceful, homeless adolescent forced to grow old before his time in the mean streets and back alleys of modern Bombay. Every scene was shot on location, and the children in the film are actual homeless kids, all of them coached into remarkably natural performances alongside the few professional actors. The result is an unsentimental look at the bitter cycle of poverty and crime in a city where life is given a rare vitality by its dubious worth. Within the community of thieves, junkies, prostitutes, and pimps is a measure of compassion equal to their misery, and Nair is able to convey the stubborn spark of hope clinging to even the most tragic victims of circumstance. Expect an honest ending, not a happy one.