Bombay on AllMovie

This powerfully provocative political-religious melodrama is a blockbuster hit in India where it was made. The message in the film was considered so potent by the government that it took two months for censors, police, and politicians to review it prior to the film's release. It is on the surface, a love story between a good Hindu man and a devout Muslim woman who leave their village to marry and live in tumultuous Bombay. There they have twin sons and raise each one to understand and accept the disparate religious traditions of their parents. Within the great city, there is much religious unrest and when the Muslims hear that Hindu radicals have attacked an ancient Mosque, riots explode everywhere. At one point rioters capture the twins and demand they claim their religion; when they cannot, they are doused with gasoline and are almost immolated. Meanwhile, their father, a journalist, attempts to report on the fighting and finds himself faced with blind hatred on either side. To protect their grandchildren, their two grandfathers, traditionally bitter enemies, move to Bombay, and when they too suffer religious persecution, they unite to end the violence.