Salaam Bombay! 1988

Krishna, Shafiq Syed, sets fire to his elder brother’s motorbike in a moment of anger after being bullied, and his worried mother sends him to the Apollo Circus, insisting he must earn 500 rupees to repay the damage. He agrees and steps into a world of bright tents, limelight, and hard work, hoping the circus will forge a path back home.

The circus is packing up to move to its next site when a routine errand goes wrong. Krishna returns to find the troupe has already left, leaving him stranded with almost nothing and precious little cash. With nowhere to turn, he heads for Mumbai, the vast metropolis that will soon test every line of his resolve. In the teeming streets, his few belongings are snatched away by quick hands, and a chasing hunger for both money and safety leads him into a rough, unfamiliar network.

In the Grant Road area, Krishna crosses paths with Chillum, a drug pusher and addict who becomes a dark mentor of sorts. Chillum helps him land a job at a busy tea stall and introduces him to a life where money and risk are tightly braided together. In this underworld, Baba Golub presides as a dealer who falls back on addicts to keep the machine running. Baba’s household is not peaceful: Rekha, Baba’s wife, is a prostitute, and their young daughter Manju is caught in the same turbulent surroundings. Rekha longs for a quieter life for her child, a dream that Baba seems unable or unwilling to grant.

Krishna earns the nickname “Chaipau” as he learns to weave his way through this new city’s rhythms. Yet saving money remains nearly impossible, and he finds himself pulled deeper into a system he did not choose. A teenage girl named Sola Saal—named for her age, sixteen years—has just entered the brothel, and Krishna’s fascination with her becomes a dangerous thread. In a reckless bid to rescue her, he sets fire to her room and attempts to flee with her, but the plan falls apart. The fire leaves Krishna badly beaten, while Sola Saal denies starting it and clings to her supposed virginity as a mark of value for her captors. The brothel’s Madame, played by Shaukat Azmi, urges Baba to “tame” her, a demand that underscores the cruelty of the place.

Despite the precarious balance, Krishna keeps working odd jobs to pool together money and to assist Chillum, who is increasingly desperate for drugs. Chillum’s misfortunes culminate when a disastrous interview with a foreign journalist costs him his standing, and in a cruel twist, Krishna discovers that the money he had saved has been siphoned off by Chillum to fund his own addiction. The drug-fueled cycle proves fatal when Chillum overdoses and dies.

One night, Krishna and his friends are caught by the police and thrown into a juvenile facility. He manages to escape and returns to the world he knows, only to find a new recruit has taken Chillum’s place in Baba’s drug operation. Krishna reunites with Sola Saal and tries to coax her into running away with him, but she has become enthralled with Baba and is no longer interested in Krishna’s plan. She is sent away to service her first client, while Rekha’s resolve stiffens when she learns that authorities intend to keep their daughter in the system. Rekha decides to walk away from Baba, but Baba’s violence erupts, and Krishna, driven by a surge of anger, kills Baba in a moment of protective fury. He and Rekha attempt to vanish together, yet they are tragically separated in a crowd celebrating Ganesh.

The film closes with a slow, lingering zoom on Krishna’s face, a portrait of defeat, resilience, and the uncertain road ahead in a city that never stops asking for more.