From Wake Up Sid To Salaam Bombay: 5 Films That Pen A Love Letter To Mumbai

Mumbai, the city of dreams, is the city that never sleeps and also never stops amusing you with its own charms, glitz, and glamour. Over the years, several Bollywood films have penned love letters to iconic cities of India including Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata among others as the backdrop of the films.

Bollywood has represented several shades of Mumbai through several lenses- sometimes romanticizing the slums in Mumbai, sometimes glorifying the underground world of Mumbai, and sometimes the raw side of the mostly glamorous film industry.

Here are five Bollywood films that quintessentially captured the essence of the little lanes and heritages of the city of dreams, Mumbai.

Wake Up Sid

In the 2009 coming-of-age Hindi drama film Wake Up Sid, we see Bombay through the lens of Aisha Banerjee (Konkona Sen Sharma), an aspiring writer from Kolkata to moves to the city of dreams to follow her career, and Sid (Ranbir Kapoor), a young spoilt brat who is born and brought up in the city. From the first rains to sipping chai at Marine Drive by the sea, with Aisha, we get a glimpse of a fresh and hopeful Bombay. The film portrays a city you will instantly fall in love with after seeing Sid and Aisha’s friendship blooming through a walk in the lanes of the city.

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The Lunchbox

The Lunchbox, starring Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur, is a beautiful portrayal of Mumbai’s two lifelines- the dabbawalas and the local trains. The film narrates the story of a beautiful and pure bond that brews between the two when a lunchbox reaches the wrong person and how Khan finds a friend and a protege in Shaikh (Nawazzuddin Siddiqui) in the locals.

Dhobi Ghat

Starring Aamir Khan, Kriti Malhotra, Prateik Babbar, and Monica Dogra, the Kiran Rao directorial film Dhobi Ghat follows the story of four people from different walks of life. One is a washer-man who is an aspiring actor, another is a banker-turned-photographer, the third is a painter, and the last is a newly married immigrant- all of who find themselves connected by fate and in the constant unpredictability of Mumbai. In this film, the city plays an important role in shaping their lives.

City Lights

Directed by Hansal Mehta, the 2014 Hindi drama film City Lights starring Rajkummar Rao and Patralekha in the lead depicts the reality of the thousands of people who come to Mumbai in the hope of doing something remarkable and unforgettable but in the end, fail to do so. The film gives shows Mumbai through the lens of a common man with big dreams struggling in his everyday life and the challenges of the big glamorous city.

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Salaam Bombay

A Mira Nair directorial, Salaam Bombay was raw and way ahead of its time. The film shows the dark lanes of Bombay’s red-light area through the lanes of young Krishna, poetically called Sola Saal, who was sold to a brothel and the children living on the streets of the city. The National award-winning film went on to become the second Oscar nomination after Mother India.