Bombay

This is a film about the ethnic divide in India set during the 1994 Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai (Bombay).

The direction is slick, the script excellent and the songs brilliant. You will not often find an Indian Commercial film which is entertaining and has a thoughtful message.

While the ending might be idealistic and slightly unrealistic, it gives us hope that one day we will set aside our differences. The message is also not rammed down our throat, so overall go and watch this movie!

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.

First having heard the music and later having eyewitness information from the 1993 riots in Mumbai from my wife (who was in her early teens at the time), I sat and watched this movie in my home on what happened to be India's 60th Independence Day anniversary. I must admit I was stunned and baffled and all that, especially from the magnificent depiction of an impossible love story. The riot scenes in the second half of the film are also quite moving, but the end of the film lacks some of the momentum found elsewhere.

Nevertheless, this is a movie worth watching, especially in the company of Indians, since it contains a lot of symbolism hardly understandable to "us" foreigners.

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.

It is hard to make a good movie despite having a good story. For there are chances of making mistakes in the script or cinematography or music or direction.But Maniratnam has made a movie with no mistakes to find in it! Real magic! He did not make it that perfect even in'Thalapathi' or 'Roja' or even 'Nayagan'. Suitable music ,neat portrayal, nice story and over all a great movie!A perfect 10 to say.This deserved to win a national award, though it was not given. But still,it is the bestTamilfilm i had ever seen.Also it should have been a very big hit for its good content. A must see for all. The best from Maniratnam.I had watched it 5 times.