Camera d’Or Year 11 (1988): Mira Nair’s “Salaam Bombay!” (Oscar Nominee)

The indie director Mira Nair belongs to a rising generation of women who are not necessarily making “women’s films,” but they still reflect female sensibility in their work.

Indian-born but Harvard-educated, Nair has been attracted attracted to the issue of outsiders living on the margins of society, yearning to establish a “real home” or some semblance of a community.

Nair’s feature debut, Salaam Bombay! which won the 1988 Cannes Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Fest, is a powerful expose of homeless children. The kids occupy the lowest classes in society have an identity and role to play, and share a community, however humble it is.

Grade: A- (**** out of *****)

Salaam Bombay!
Theatrical release poster

Hecror Babenco’s1985 Brazilian movie Pixote and Salaam Bombay! have much in common in their portrayal of lower class children struggling to survive day to day. The Brazilian street children exist in an anarchic and savage world, and in this film, too, the children are doing the best they can under most dire circumstances.

Salaam Bombay! portrays the disturbing experiences street children undergo through the eyes of Chaipau (Shafiq Syed), a young country boy who is left alone to navigate his live among hustlers, drug peddlers, and prostitutes on the streets of Bombay.

Nair undertook detailed research to create Salaam Bombay, and is noted for the induction of the film’s subjects into active fictionalization of their experiences, which leads to a realistic narration.

The film drew its intensity, texture, and color from first-hand familiarity with its specific locales, the slums of Bombay.

For her second film, Mississippi Masala, Nair chose a spicy interracial romance in the Deep South, starring the then young Denzel Washington. ]

Her next feature, The Perez Family, also dealt with outsiders, chronicling the entangled lives of Cuban immigrants as they try to forge a new existence in Miami.

Nair grew up in a small town in the Indian state of Orissa, where she later worked as an actress. In 1976, she went to Harvard as an undergraduate and discovered filmmaking, which led to a number of documentaries dealing with lives on the margins of Indian society, such as “So Far from India” (1982). Her short, “India Cabaret” (1985), a portrait of strippers in a Bombay nightclub, won international recognition.

Inspired by (Intertextuality)

Salaam Bombay! was inspired by several classic children pictures, including Vittorio De Sica’ “Shoeshine,” the aforementioned “Pixote,” and the early work of her compatriot, the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray.

My Oscar Book:

Oscar Alert

Oscar Nominations: 1

Foreign Language Film

Oscar Awards: None

Oscar Context:

In 1988, the Danish movie, Pelle the Conqueror, won the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar.

Credits:

Directed by Mira Nair
Screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala, story by Mira Nair
Produced by Nair, Michael Nozik

Cinematography Sandi Sissel
Edited by Barry Alexander Brown
Music by L. Subramaniam

Distributed by Cinecom Pictures (USA)
Release dates:  May 11, 1988 (Cannes Fest); Sept 13, 1988 (TIFF); Oct 7, 1988 (Worldwide)

Running time: 113 minutes
Language Hindi
Budget $450,000
Box office: estimated $7.5 million

Nair Career Summary

As noted, Mira Nair gained international acclaim for her colorful drama Salaam Bombay!, which depicted the lives of street children in Mumbai, and won the Camera d’Or award at the Cannes Film Fest.

Nair continued to explore Indian culture and diaspora experiences in the dramedy Monsoon Wedding, which received widespread praise for its vibrant portrayal of a Delhi wedding and arranged marriage.

Known for blending humor with drama, coming-of-age stories, and adaptations of literary works such as The Namesake, Queen of Katwe, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Nair, (who was born in 1967) has not received much attention from mainstream audiences.