Mandi (1983) Country: India Language: Hindi Year: 1983 Color/BW: COLOR Category: Feature Film Genre: Drama
Description For years an aging Rukmini Bai (Shabana Azmi) has been the Madame of a brothel in Hyderabad, India. One day she gets the news that she now has a new landlord in Mr. Gupta (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), whose daughter is to marry the mayor's son Sushil, shortly. Lead by City Councillor, Shantidevi, the people in this town demand that this bordello be moved elsewhere, preferably on the outskirts of the town, and they do succeed, compelling Rukmini to move with her women to their new location, which happens to be near the Dargah of Baba Karak Shah. Ironically, this attracts a lot of people, and the patronage to Rukmini's bordello increases. Then complications set in when Sushil refuses to marry his father's choice, child-like Malti, and wants to marry Zeenat (Smita Patil) - a prostitute, not entirely by choice and seeking for a better existence, who resides with Rukmini.
Cast: Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Amrish Puri, Saeed Jaffery, Om Puri, Neena Gupta, Ratna Pathak, Pankaj Kapur, Soni Razdan, Ila Arun, Gita Siddharth, Sreela Majumdar, Khokha Mukherjee | | Director: Shyam Benegal Music Director: Vanraj Bhatia
| | Arth (1982) Country: India Language: Hindi Year: 1982 Color/BW: COLOR Category: Feature Film Genre: Drama, Romance
Description Arth is about Pooja (Shabana Azmi), an orphan girl. Her husband Inder (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) hates her and he falls in love with another woman, Kavita (Smita Patil). He advices Kavita to leave her husband, but his husband refuses. She is helped by Raj (Raj Kiran) to surpass the difficulties of a life as a single person, to find a job and to rely morally on herself. Inder requests Pooja to sign the divorce papers. Pooja (Rohini Hattangadi) personally assures Kavita that she is not interested anymore in Inder. What happens next? Does Inder changes his mind and lives with Pooja? forms the rest of the story.
Cast: Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Raj Kiran, Rohini Hattangadi, Gulshan Grover, Siddharth Kak, Mazhar Khan, Dina Pathak, Shammi, Om Shivpuri, Gita Siddharth, Dalip Tahil, Chand Usmani, Kiran Vairale | | Director: Mahesh Bhatt Music Director: Jagjit Singh, Chitra Singh
| | Kondura (1978) Country: India Language: Hindi Year: 1978 Color/BW: COLOR Category: Feature Film Genre: Drama
Description Jogamma (Jhansi) is the widow of Brahmin Pandit Range Rao , and lives in a coastal village in Southern India along with her two married sons, Narsimha (Siddesh), who is married to Seethamma and has two son; while Parasuram (Anant Nag) is married to Ansuya (Vanisree). Narsimha, who not only looks after the estate, but also works as a clerk, often ends up chiding Parsuram to do something proactive. A frustrated Parshuram, not able to bear the taunts of his family anymore decides to run away from home, but has an encounter with a Sage named Kondura, who is believed to be living under the sea for ions. Kondura bestows a boon upon him, asks him not to misuse it, and be a celibate. A disbelieving Parshuram returns home, finds out that Guru is yet another person who was granted the boon of finding water, even in arid areas, and asks him to help dig a well. Guru does help and water is discovered shortly thereafter. Parshuram claims that he can also converse with a Goddess in the local Mandir. Things change when the villagers realize that he is telling the truth, and in no time at all Parsuram himself becomes a sage in his own right. When the Goddess appears before him, she instructs him to re-build her temple, and he does so with the help of Zamindar Bhairavmoorthy, a cruel, self-centered man, who is known to have had many sexual relationships, including one with his sister-in-law, but is known to be impotent. His brother gave birth to a crippled boy, Venu, and passed away. Bhairav brought up Venu, educated him, but treats him with contempt, whips him frequently, gets him married to a good-looking, but poor woman named Parvati. With money coming in from Bhairav, the temple is built, however, the Goddess is unhappy and tells Parsuram that sin is flourishing in this village. It is then that Parvati becomes pregnant, and everyone believes that Bhairav has overcome his impotence and is the father. Believing Bhairav to be behind all sins in this village, Parsuram sets about to reverse this, and manages to fool Parvati to drink a concoction, the very boon that was granted by Kondura, that will make her abort this child. Shortly thereafter Parsuram finds out that Venu is the to-be father, and now guilt-ridden, he must find a way to reverse this, even if it means incurring the wrath of Kondura and the Goddess.
Cast: Smita Patil, Anant Nag, Amrish Puri, Shekhar Chatterjee, Sulabha Deshpande, Satyadev Dubey, Prabhakar Reddy, Vanisree | | Director: Shyam Benegal Music Director: Vanraj Bhatia
| | Debshishu (1985) Country: India Language: Hindi Year: 1985 Color/BW: COLOR Category: Feature Film Genre: Drama
Description This powerful and realistic film is a study of poverty, illiteracy, natural calamities and the toll they take on the human soul. The story of a rural couple who're trying to survive on the road with many others like them, after their village was destroyed by a flood. The wife gives birth to a deformed baby, which is pronounced as a 'child of the devil' by the local pundit (Hindu priest), who forces them to abandon the child and exiles them from the community. The journey takes the couple towards a bizarre and heart-breaking conclusion.
Cast: Smita Patil, Om Puri, Rohini Hattangadi, Sadhu Meher, Noni Ganguly, Sunil Mukherjee, Om Shivpuri | | Director: Utpalendu Chakrabarty Music Director: Utpalendu Chakrabarty
| | | Format: DVD Label: Eagle Catalog No: EDVD S 3592 DVD Region: All Region No Of Disks: 4 Subtitles: English Video: NTSC | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
