Salaam Bombay
More than two months ago, very late into the last year, I was watching Salaam Bombay and then spent the same amount of time watching the special features on the DVD : the director's commentary, the special featurettes and the director of photographer's commentary. To be honest, I found the movie a bit tedious after about half-way through- it was as if I was watching a documentary. Later, during Mira Nair's commentary I found out why I felt that way -- she had only shot documentaries before she made this movie; they used real people and locations for the movie; and, at times, even incorporated incidents that weren't in the original script but just happened just because they were shooting on a limited budget and time. It was interesting to see some of the featurettes talking about the lives of some of the child actors, who were actually street children. The makers of the movie established a center for children called Salaam Balak. One of the guys, named Keeda in the movie, was adopted by Sandy the Director of Photography and moved to America. It wasn't the same fairy tale for the others --the protagonist, who won the Best Child Actor National Award, tried to carve a career as an actor but now works in Bangalore as a cameraperson; the girl Manju lives in Bombay and is into the bartan for kapda business -- but at least they didn't end up hopeless and destitue. It's interesting that what was just two hours of entertainment for most people not just showed the "real" lives of those people but, in fact, actually changed a lot of lives for the better.
