Bombay (1995)

Waste of time

the audience applauded

Crappy film

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

A typical Mani ratnam movie with a warm beginning and after the interval has some good interesting storyline developing. The initial romance between Arvind and Manisha is sweet and the second half where they get embroiled in the dirty politics leading to bomb blasts leads to interesting things. Though there seems to be some bloodspill shown, its not very harsh tone. Hospital scenes where people are searching for their missing ones is heart warming. Its a good communal movie which showcases that violence does not give any win and that if people unite, its stronger than what anti-socials can do.Nazar gives a good performance, so do all the other people in the cast. A.R.Rahman's music is excellent and make a good collection.

This one is among the worst Mani Ratnam movies I have seen. Not that Mani Ratnam is a great director in my opinion - he's just among the better ones in Bollywood full of third rate directors. But this movie has nothing to commend itself. The movie is supposed to be based on historical incidents, but there is no accuracy in any of the incidents depicted. I would rather read Times of India. It's a totally crap commercial movie, trying to find balance in the 1992/93 massacre, where there was no balance shown by Shiv Sena government or the police force in Mumbai. In a supposedly serious movie, there are unbelievable number of trash and irrelevant songs and dances. While the riot scenes are being shown, there is a background song on the virtues of unity and harmony. Total waste of 3 hours.

Everyone said the right good words about this movie. I would only like to add that although the storyline is good, and the message is excellent, the hand-holding at the end is as beautiful as it is (sadly) unbelievable, and A.R. Rahman's music is fabulous -- the choreography was a disappointment. I actually rented this movie to see the dancing to Kehna Hi Kya, which is an all time favorite of mine. With Chitra singing the whole time this would have been a perfect opportunity for Manisha Koirala to show off. But, she doesn't even seem to get he lips synchronized with the lyrics, and the camera-operator seems to dance around more than she does, so I was disappointed. The same goes for the other music&dance scenes in this movie. I'm a great fan of Rahman's but the choreography has spoiled it for me.I really enjoy good Hindi movies, and music and dance is part of a good Hindi film. That's just the way it is and I don't want it any different. There are only few movies where everything fits: story, cinematography, acting, music and dancing. Nothing has yet topped Lagaan in that regard. Bombay is a great movie, but not perfect.

This is a truly beautiful film. The story is essentially this: a Hindu man and a Muslim woman from a small village in India fall in love and decide to marry. The villagers disapprove of this marriage to the point that they are ready to incite a riot. Given the circumstances, the man and woman elope to Mumbai (Bombay.)Everything is okay there, and the two have twins, Kamal Bano and Kabir Narayan (the names are a mix of Hindu and Muslim, to represent their heritage.) The grandfathers (while still in the village) naturally argue with each other and vow to make the children Hindu (or Muslim, depends on who wins.) Suddenly, the 1993 riots erupt, and the whole family is caught in the middle. The twins are almost burned alive, but they survive thanks to police intervention. Both grandfathers show up in Bombay (out of concern for their children and grandchildren) and continue to compete there. When another riot ensues, and the Hindu grandfather (and grandson) are approached by a group of Muslim men, the Muslim grandfather arrives in the nick of time and tells the men "He is my brother." Later in the film, one of the twins is separated from the other and is taken in for about a day by a member of the "hijda" community (this is a community in India that is essentially composed of eunuchs or hermaphrodites, but they wear women's clothing.) In a conversation with one of the twins, the "hijda" says "Religion is a way to God." The child asks him, "Then why are all of these people killing each other?" To this the man replies, "I have no idea. And I've been thinking about it for a long time."You don't necessarily have to be Indian to appreciate this film, but I think it helps. The underlying message is that "We (as residents of India) should be Indians first and Hindu/Muslim/whatever second. The film also conveys the message of tolerance and humanity. It is really an excellent film.