Bombay

This movie is often compared to Spielberg's "Schindler's List", as the one and only movie which actually works in this context and how Spielberg could have made it to express his strong pathetic and political emotions. What a shame that "Bombay" haven't got such a big audience.

The true life epos tells us the story of the Muslim-Hindu conflict 1995 in Bombay from the viewpoint of a young Muslim-Hindu couple doomed to leave their home town and families. This movie was made in the south, in Madras, shortly after the riots, and was immediately synchronized in Bombay to Hindi for the big audience. During the next three hours (the typical hindi movie length) everything works out fine, until the last thirty minutes where the Bombay riots suddenly break up everything. Mani Ratnam is the one and only director how dares to bring a song (every Hindi movie is a musical) during the very realistic war scenes, where such a scene actually works. Scenes where you are immediately reminded to how you would have shaken your head or laughed if this was just "Schindler's List". Imagine the jews singing in the last 30 minutes. Or the Trier train dance scene (for which you have to see "Dil Se") cut to the end. Not so here. They sing about the cruelty of war. Stop fighting. Crying, laughing, singing, dying, very close together. Where Trier sinks into unbelievable and childish anti-dead sentence pathos, Ratnam is still with the people, full of positive power. Incredible. A must see from one of the most important directors world-wide.

Begins like a silly Indian love/dance movie and develops into the strongest, most emotional movie I have ever seen. I saw it in the Gothenburg film festival and I saw couples holding each other after the film finished (comforting each other) and a guy asked: " Do they have a crisis center set up to help us deal with the movie now?". Religious tensions and human conflicts is a hard subject (doing the right vs the wrong thing), wonderfully dealt with in this movie. A strong argument for peace and a colorful tale of recent Indian history. See it.

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.

Bombay (1995) :

Perhaps the Best work of Fiction depicting Hindu-Muslim 1993 Riots and it's Communal Harmony. Arvind Swami, Mani Ratnam and AR Rahman, the Classic Roja trio does it again with new sensational joining Manisha Koirala. Among all those films about Hindu-Muslim 1993 Riots i have seen, Bombay is perhaps the best work of Fiction included in real events. The topper of the list is none other than 'Black Friday' which was a non-fiction project. Bombay is a story of an eccentric couple, a Hindu man marries a muslim girl against the restrictions of guardians and settles in Bombay city. Later, the Babri Masjid incident make Bombay go frantic and riot between Hindus and Muslims takes over. The fictional characters of the film tries to make themselves look more genuine and communal friendly in the first half of the film. The love story, married life and birth of childrens almost wastes the first half and then Bombay truly goes on Riot mode in last 40 minutes. Mani Ratnam gets almost everything right from situations to consequences to human emotions to communal harmony and humanity emancipation. Bombay is more clever and cleaner film than his 'Roja', i don't have any complaints about the screenplay and structure as i had with Roja. AR Rahman goes on to deliver another quality music album besides the fact that Bombay lacks patriotic and harmony theme song. However, all the songs in the Film are fantastic. Choreography of the songs is unexpectedly brilliant. Every song uses the situations and moments correctly. Arvind Swami proves his metal again and Manisha Koirala shines equally despite a normal and sober character. Her presence in the climax scenes feels less and that's where I want to bash Mani Ratnam, not her because it's not her mistake. Rather than calling it a Classic I would say, Bombay is morever a Social Classic and far more important film than all other films of it's time. Mani Ratnam made this film exactly on time when it was needed despite the slight fear of the controversies it could have created. I can feel how people would have reacted and accepted Bombay in 1995 because many Indian citizens were still in shock of the consequences of riots. Dialogues will give you Goosebumps. Bombay doesn't really fall short of anything in its genre but if i really have to ask for something more which was missing then it's more Hard-hitting and Burning Climax. The film doesn't have any character of Saviour who should have at least tried to stop these things, it just goes on an goes on without anyone even trying to stop or restrict it. The other missing thing as i told you Heroine's presence in the last moments is too blur. As a Director Mani Ratnam has made a Powerful Social Film that might have brought change in some people's evil thinking for sure. I have seen his 5 films till date (Roja, Bombay, Dil Se, Guru, Raavan) and Bombay is by Far his Best Film. This is not a Classic but little more than it.

RATING - 8.5/10*

By - #samthebestest

Bombay was something excellent, it was natural, it happened, more over every one played their part well, making it a success, even people who worked in the backstage. The Great Director choose his subjects well. Prakash Rai who was offered a small role....was excellent too..the budding star at that time.

You can also see the set, the expression of the actors who acts as the public, or who just appear once, they still do their best, you can also watch some scene where the crowd appears. great direction, he could manage all that too, we need more movies like these, we need more directors and actors like these, to make a great movie of time.