Salaam Bombay! 1988

Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune: Much to Nair`s credit, she exploits neither the exoticism of her locale (there are no tour-guide, look-at-this flourishes) nor the misery of her subjects (suffer they may, but they do not demand pity). Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Watching this picture feels more like a solemn duty than a form of entertainment or enrichment. And whether it is fantasy or reality, a movie should never be something you see as a duty. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Salaam Bombay! deserves a broad audience, not just to open American eyes to plights of hunger and homelessness abroad, but to open American minds to the vitality of a cinema without rim shots and happy endings. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: For a film about such hopelessness, Salaam Bombay! is surprisingly cheering. Read more

Ted Shen, Chicago Reader: Like Hector Babenco's Pixote the film is unsparingly gritty, but with a woman's tenderness it also grants the characters an occasional moment of grace. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Nair has been able to make a film that has the everyday, unforced reality of documentary, and yet the emotional power of great drama. Read more

Rupert Smith, Time Out: Shot entirely on location with its child actors recruited from the streets, Salaam Bombay! enters into its subjects' lives with rare authority and absolute compassion. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Director Mira Nair, trained in America, is very much in control of her material, tells her story efficiently and has most of the cast, none of them real professionals, under total control. Read more

Leslie Camhi, Village Voice: The director's experience making documentaries served her well as she worked for weeks with the kids who inhabit Bombay's backstreets. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: A savvy, unsentimentalized first feature by director Mira Nair. Read more