Mira Nair brings a documentarian’s sensibility to her texturally rich narrative feature debut

What strikes you is not simply its energy and vitality and its Dickensian storytelling appetite, but its fierce unsentimentality.

Like Hector Babenco's Pixote the film is unsparingly gritty, but with a woman's tenderness it also grants the characters an occasional moment of grace.

Unique in its screen energy and daring in its tonality, with Nair hoping to bring attention to a dire situation of living where life seems disposable.