Sahibaan

The village of Dhauladhar is situated in the mountains set among some of most scenic beauties that nature has to offer. Inder (Tinnu Anand) is a TV serial director who arrives in Dhauladhar to film his latest episode. He hires a guide (Sudhir Pandey) who helps him scout for potential shooting locations. He takes Inder to a large banyan tree which has 2 graves under its vast canopy. An old Medicant (Sanjay Dutt) lives under the banyan tree, who says that the graves belong to Sahibaan and Gopi and proceeds to narrate their story. Sahibaan (Madhuri Dixit) lives a poor lifestyle in a small village in rural India along with her mom (Anjana Mumtaz), dad Balakram (Satyendra Kapoor), and a mentally challenged cousin Kheru (Javed Khan). Balakram makes a living selling dolls. Sahibaan is in love with a homeless laborer, Gopi (Rishi Kapoor), who lives near temples and eats whatever the villagers give him. Gopi plays a melodious tune on his flute, which attracts Sahibaan to him. Gopi works as a shepherd to earn some money for his sustenance. Sahibaan is childish in her behavior and doesn't realize that she is a grown woman now. Sahibaan is 18 years old but insists that her father carries her on his shoulders and plays marbles with the children of the village. Gopi admonishes her and one day she falls into a river. Gopi looks at her water drenched body and sends her home. Gopi is very afraid of the water and says that he doesn't know how to swim. That day she grows up, throws her marbles away and starts helping her mother around the house. Sahibaan learns to cook food and sew clothes as well. She expresses her love to Gopi, who accepts. The area is ruled by ruthless killer, alcoholic and womanizer Kunwar Vijay Pal Singh (Sanjay Dutt). He is sympathetic towards the poor and has a rivalry with the landlord of the nearby province Tikka (Kiran Kumar). Tikka is considered ruthless towards his workers and Vijay stands up to him and his goons and fights for the rights of his village's workers. Vijay increases the daily wages for his workers from Rs 1.5/day to Rs 3/day. Due to this all of Tikka's workers come to work for Vijay and this enrages Tikka. Tikka forcibly takes the workers back to him lumber mills by whipping them and torturing their families. In retaliation, Vijay kills one of Tikka's supervisors. Mrs Tikka (Beena Banerjee) & Tikka's sister Rajkumari Razee (Sonu Walia) live with Tiika. Every night Vijay ravishes a new prostitute and sends her away the next morning. Tikka sends an assassin to Kill Vijay, but Vijay kills him instead. Tikka bribes Inspector (Mangal Dhillon) to open a murder investigation against Vijay. Inspector tries to get Vijay's fingerprints on his gun, in order to frame him, but Vijay is too clever and had already worn gloves. One day while chasing a rabbit, Sahibaan ends up in the palace ground of Vijay & is abducted by his guards and left at the mercy of Vijay, but Sahibaan manages to escape. Vijay, however, is unable to get her out of his mind and asks Diwan Durga Singh (Bharat Kapoor) to search high and low for her. The Diwan is able to find her during a Mela and takes several men, sweetmeats, jewelry and clothing to propose to a delighted and disbelieving Balakram and his wife. The same day Gopi was planning to ask for Sahibaan's hand in marriage from her dad. Meanwhile at the Mela, Razee was also present and was attracted to Gopi. Sahibaan's parents are angered when Sahibaan refuses to marry Vijay and asks them to get her to marry Gopi. When Gopi proposes to Balakram, Gopi is humiliated, beaten and asked to leave. Diwan returns to Vijay, who decides to kill Gopi. Vijay locates Gopi, beats him, and throws him in the river. Razee finds Gopi at a riverbank, barely alive and persuades Tikka to take him home. When Sahibaan says that Vijay had attempted to molest her, Balakram refuses to permit her to marry Vijay, despite of the fact that Vijay promises to stop drinking alcohol and having his way with women. Vijay forbids Durga Singh from abducting Sahibaan again, as he truly loves her. Both Balakram and Sahibaan set out to try and locate Gopi, as Sahibaan is convinced that he is alive. They find Gopi's clothes near a funeral pyre (these clothes were discarded by Razee as they were drenched in blood) and assumes that Gopi is now dead. Meanwhile Gopi gains consciousness under Razee's care. Tikka finds that Vijay is in love with Sahibaan. Gopi overhears this and runs after Sahibaan. Razee stops him and tells him that she loves him, but Gopi has already promised himself to Sahibaan. She convinces Gopi to come back and promises to take him to Sahibaan once the rains subside. Tikka agrees to help Razee as he wants to deny Vijay at all costs. Meanwhile Sahibaan gives up and agrees to marry Vijay. Tikka confronts Vijay but is instead beaten up by Vijay. But this gives time for Gopi to reach Sahibaan. Razee helps Gopi and Sahibaan escape, but Vijay pursues them. Durga stops Gopi and Sahibaan by putting rocks in their horse carriage path. Razee dies when the carriage overturns. Durga tries to convince Sahibaan, but she jumps into the river to escape. Vijay arrives and shoots Durga. Gopi jumps after Sahibaan. Vijay jumps to save both but can only flush out their dead bodies.