Lives on the Line

Set in India’s fabled city by the Arabian Sea…told in a narrative of music and reportage, “Bombay Buskers” is a unique film about eight-year-old Nagarjuna, an itinerant musician on Mumbai’s vast railway system.

Nagarjuna plays a battered harmonium and sings Bollywood-inspired love songs, sometimes for 14 hours a day. He lives in a slum at the side of the tracks. Wise beyond his years, but still a child, his precocious talent makes him the principal breadwinner for his family of seven.

Over the course of a year, Nagarjuna dodges corrupt police and railway officials, survives jail and sees his home demolished. But can Nagarjuna overcome the greatest challenge of all…his community’s centuries-old tradition of exploiting the tender ages and musical skills of their own children?

Shot undercover on the world’s busiest railway, “Bombay Buskers” is a gripping portrait of poverty, hardship and survival…a bitter-sweet tale of a child’s remarkable courage and endurance against great odds.

Nothing can stop the train of life...

“Bombay Buskers” is a sanlucar films production for Parachute Pictures

Original language: Telegu/Hindi
English subtitles and commentary

Written by: David Browne
Bureau Bombay: David Browne, Sanjay Samant and Niranjan Racha
Photographed by: David Browne
Associate Producers: Walter G. Ambler and Andre Dubronski
Edited by: Richard Coldman
Directed and Produced by: David Browne