Bombay (1995)
A love story set in the turbulent times of the 1992 Bombay riots that followed the Babri Masjid controversy, this film was made especially poignant by the fact that the lovers involved are a Hindu boy and a Muslim girl.
The storyline of Bombay courted controversy as it was being made -- references to real-life events and political personalities are not viewed too kindly in Indian cinema. There were protests from religious leaders about scenes that offended communal sentiments, Manisha Koirala's Hyderabadi dialect in the Hindi version ensured that the film could not ever be released in Nizam territory, while distributors everywhere quaked in fear of impending protests by local interest groups.
Marred by an unrealistic ending and somewhat stereotypical characters, Bombay became a hit just by virtue of the controversy associated with it. The fact that Rajiv Menon's cinematography, AR Rahman's lilting tunes, Thotta Tharani's sets that recreated chawls in Bombay for the film on soundstages, Manisha Koirala and Arvind Swami's hard-hitting performances were above par makes the film worthy of a cine-goer's hosannas.
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