Avon Theatre presents the Anglo-Indian film Salaam Bombay! (1988) on Thursday, May 17, and after the performance, the director, Mira Nair, will take questions from the audience.

The film, shown at 7:30 p.m. won the Golden Camera and Prix de Publique awards at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The film joins the ranks of such previous “street children” classics as Shoeshine (1946) and Pixote (1981).

Shafiq Syed plays Krishna, a country boy forced to grow up in the slums of New Delhi. Soon, Krishna knows no other life than hustling and stealing, and no other “neighbors” than the druggies, pimps and prostitutes who populate the teeming streets.

an announcement from Avon Theatre

The grimness of the subject matter is leavened at times with a steady stream of fascinating and colorful supporting characters.

Wikipedia | IMDb.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | RogerEbert.com

Salaam Bombay! was the first fictional feature from acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair; though the story is scripted, the actors are genuine street people.

Salaam Bombay film promotional picture

About Mira Nair

Award-winning director Mira Nair is the president of Mirabai Films. She was born and raised in Rourkela, India, and went on to study at Delhi and Harvard universities.

She began as an actress before segueing to make documentaries. Her narrative feature debut, Salaam Bombay! (1988), won the Camera d’Or and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.

A resourceful and determined independent filmmaker who casts unknowns alongside Hollywood stars, Nair has directed Mississippi Masala (1991), The Perez Family(1995), Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996), Hysterical Blindness(2002), Vanity Fair (2004), The Namesake (2006), Amelia(2009), and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012).

Her most recent film, Queen of Katwe, about a rural Ugandan girl with an aptitude for chess, stars Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo. Nair’s acclaimed film Monsoon Wedding (2001) was recently brought to the stage as a highly anticipated musical at Berkeley Repertory Theater where it closed an extended, sold-out run this past summer.

She is the director of BBC’s forthcoming adaptation of A Suitable Boy, to be released in 2020.

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