Salaam Bombay!

Back from an errand for a seedy circus owner, urchin Krishna finds the troupe has picked up and disappeared, leaving him with barely enough money for a 3rd class ticket to Bombay. From here on, Krishna becomes a chaipau, constantly on the run delivering tea in one of the city's red light districts; sleeping in a garbage-strewn alley with world-wise new friends; snatching moments of pleasure with pilfered sweets or at a Bollywood musical; and doing the bidding of a drug kingpin/pimp whose latest project is taming an abducted 16-year-old into prostitution.