Left alone in the circus, Krishna arrives at the city of Bombay and lives with a gang of street children. On the other side of India′s leading tourist destination of Bombay lie the poverty-stricken reality of street children, brothels, and drug traffickers busy leading their lives without a future. Revealing the underbelly of the city from Krishna′s point of view, Salaam Bombay! depicts the barren reality on the streets, but at the same time portrays the visually beautiful and dreamy moments created by Krishna and his friends from the slums. Mira Nair’s camera illumines the lives of the marginalized, and while it does not sing of hope, it does not despair easily either. The ambivalence of the moment when the joy of the festival and Krishna’s tears intersect at the end of the film stirs deep emotions and poses a loaded question. (HONG Soin)