Salaam Bombay!

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MichaelB
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Salaam Bombay!

#1 Post by MichaelB » Tue May 25, 2021 5:03 am

Full specs announced:
SALAAM BOMBAY!
A film by Mira Nair

Released on Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime on 21 June 2021


See a clip here
Pre-order from the BFI Shop here

Salaam Bombay! is the heartrending and impassioned debut fiction feature by director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) and her frequent collaborator Sooni Taraporevala. With a cast of real-life street children, this celebration of the spirit of survival is an authentic and unflinching portrayal of India’s impoverished underbelly.

Oscar-nominated and critically lauded, it comes to Blu-ray for the first time. Extras include an audio commentary by Mira Nair and a newly recorded discussion with the cinematographer and her son who was one of the children in the film.

Banished from his home and abandoned by the traveling circus he sought refuge in, 11-year-old Krishna (Shafiq Syed) joins the swathes of dispossessed Mumbai street children struggling to survive. To earn the money he needs to get back into his mother’s good graces and return home, Krishna finds work as a tea boy – a job that brings him into contact with an array of local characters, including prostitutes, pimps and drug-dealers.

Salaam Bombay! was the film in which the great Indian actor Irrfan Khan (1967–2020) made his debut screen appearance, in a small role, ‘Scribe’. He went on to a film career spanning 30 years before his untimely death at just 53 and is known in the UK for his performances in films such as The Lunchbox, Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire and Jurassic World.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition
• Audio commentary by Mira Nair (2013)
• Sandi and Bernard Sissel in Conversation (2021, 51 mins): newly recorded discussion with the cinematographer and her son, one of the children from Salaam Bombay!
India Cabaret (1985, 60 mins): Mira Nair’s documentary about female strippers from a Bombay nightclub which provided the kernel of Salaam Bombay!
• Archive shorts (1906-1936, 31 mins): three gems from the BFI National Archive reflecting themes and iconography found in Salaam Bombay!, featuring city life in La vie aux Indes / Indian Scenes, an early Dickens adaptation of Oliver Twist and a look at tea production in India and Sri Lanka in Gardens of the Orient
• Original theatrical trailer
• ***First pressing only*** illustrated booklet with a new essay by Manish Mathur and an archival essay from Sight & Sound by Alex Dudok de Wit; an introduction by Mira Nair to the Salaam Baalak Trust, a charity established specifically to provide support services for street and working children; a biography of Mira Nair by Ellen Cheshire; notes on the extras and full credits

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1421 / 15
India, France, UK / 1988 / colour / 114 mins / Hindi, with optional English language subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.78:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, LPCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit) and Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio (320kbps)

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hearthesilence
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Re: Salaam Bombay!

#2 Post by hearthesilence » Tue May 25, 2021 11:29 am

Nice! I guess we'll see how the encoding differs from Kino's U.S. release, but except for Nair's commentary track (which I'm guessing is the same?) it looks like both discs have a different set of extras, with India Cabaret being the highlight of BFI's reissue. You may be able to stream it on the Criterion Channel, but regardless it's a great complement to Salaam Bombay! for reasons stated.

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tenia
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Re: Salaam Bombay!

#3 Post by tenia » Sun Jun 27, 2021 7:24 am

Not sure exactly how the encodes differ from the US release, but the BFI indeed presents the movie at 1.78 while Kino's was at 1.85. It doesn't look like it's a different master though overall.

Edit : it IS from a (quite) different master actually !
Last edited by tenia on Sun Jun 27, 2021 7:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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manicsounds
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Re: Salaam Bombay!

#4 Post by manicsounds » Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:17 am

The old MGM DVD from the early 2000s had two commentary tracks, one by Nair and one by cinematographer Sandi Sissel, plus 6 featurettes.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray also has two commentary tracks, one by Nair and one by cinematographer Sandi Sissel, plus 6 featurettes.

The featurettes are the same, and I assume the Sissel commentary to be the same as the DVD version, but not sure about the Nair commentary if it is the old MGM DVD commentary or a 2013 commentary.

I listened to the BFI commentary and she specifically addresses the 25th anniversary screenings so it's definitely different from the MGM disc.

nitin
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2014 6:49 am

Re: Salaam Bombay!

#5 Post by nitin » Thu Sep 23, 2021 9:28 am

Looks like a completely different master to the Kino, probably from a film print given the contrast/dynamic range issues (although it has more detail which suggests a recentish scan of the film print):

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=16491&d2=16489&c=6226

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