This film is about the blind, in particular about the lives and feelings of blind children and the principal of their school. Sparsh refers to the sensation and feeling of touch upon which blind people rely in the absence of sight. The story opens with Anirudh Parmar (Naseeruddin Shah) as the principal of Navjivan Andhvidyalay, a school for the blind that educates about 200 blind children. Jagdish (Mohan Gokhale) is Anirudh's assistant at home & office. Anirudh has a dark and lonely existence for the most part. He is fiercely independent and even doesn't allow Jagdish to do all his chores. One day, while on his way to the doctor, he hears a lovely song and ends up mesmerized at the singer's door instead of the doctor that he was looking for. The voice belongs to Kavita Prasad (Shabana Azmi), a young woman recently widowed after three years of marriage. Kavita, too, prefers a secluded existence. Her childhood friend Manju (Sudha Chopra), is the only friend she has. Manju throws a small party where Kavita and Anirudh meet again. He recognizes her from her voice. During the conversation, he mentions that the school is looking for volunteers to read, sing, teach handicrafts and spend time with the children. Kavita is reluctant, but she is urged by Manju and her husband Suresh to strongly consider it. Manju takes Kavita to the school when it holds a stall for Diwali candles made by students. Kavita sees that the students are talented and run the entire stall by themselves, without any help. They make beautiful candles. Kavita decides to volunteer. On day one Anirudh warns Kavita not to see blind kids as "poor souls".. he says the kids need help and not charity. Kavita takes some time to adjust to the sightless lives of the kids and to adjust to their sensitivities. As Kavita spends more time at the school, she begins forming a friendship with Anirudh. The friendship grows stronger over time. But their personalities and feelings are different. Anirudh is of strong character. He firmly believes that the blind need help but not pity or charity. (When once, in his office, Kavita attempts to assist him with coffee, he gets enraged at the thought of his guest offering to overcome his obvious difficulty with hospitality.) Kavita helps the kids start playing blind cricket, using a special ball that makes rattles. The school prepares for their annual function and Kavita helps the student prepare a skit based on the Mahabharata. Kavita reveals to Anirudh that her husband died 3 yrs ago. The kids also love Kavita and get very close to her. A student names Paplu is infatuated with Kavita and is not able to express his complex feelings for her. Paplu is jealous of a fellow student Rampyare who is a favorite of Kavita. Paplu is not blind, but Rampyare is. Paplu picks up a fight with Rampyare, and he closes his eyes to make the contest equal. But when Kavita finds them fighting, she slaps Paplu only and takes care of Rampyare. Anirudh starts frequently visiting Kavita at her house and spends time with her. Still, Anirudh has deep rooted inferiority complex against anyone who looks at him with a sense of pity or charity. He loses his temper frequently at such instances. Manju notices that Kavita is now happy and looks forward to life. Eventually Kavita proposes to Anirudh, despite his feeling that Kavita is doing favors to him and to the school. Anirudh accepts her proposal. Anirudh finds that Paplu has told his uncle that he wants to become blind. He believes that he is mistreated because he can see. Kavita realizes her mistake and takes care of Paplu. Anirudh and Kavita get engaged. Kavita, recently bereaved, looks to the school (and Anirudh) as a way towards an ideal, one of sacrificial service. Anirudh gets wind of this (when Suresh mentions this at their engagement party) and assumes Kavita is simply seeking to fill the void in her life with this form of service. He assumes she accepted the proposal, not out of love, but as a sacrifice towards a way out of her dark life. During this time, Anirudh's fellow blind friend Dubey (Om Puri) laments that his recently deceased wife was not happy in their marriage. Dubey says that he was independent before marriage, but got dependent on her with time and became useless. Anirudh is shaken, confused, and disturbed by all this. He breaks off the engagement (but does not mention the reason to Kavita). She accepts his decision. Kavita, now a salaried employee of the school, continues to help the children. The initial coldness between her and Anirudh gives way to friction and eventually, over a series of events at the school, brings up the feelings they were not able to discuss before. Kavita is given the charge to prepare the school for a handicraft expo. She decides to bring in outside consultants without asking Anirudh, which annoys him. Anirudh feels that blind children should be self sustainable, without any help from a sighted person. Kavita feels that some guidance from anyone is not wrong at all. Kavita later admonishes Anirudh for not procuring any new book for the library in the last 2 yrs. Anirudh retorts that no new braille books have been published in the last 3 yrs. Anirudh then scolds Kavita for not learning braille herself. The situation spirals downward and one of them must leave the school. Anirudh wants Kavita to stop coming to school. Anirudh calls her an "outsider". But Kavita refuses to leave as she feels this is her school as well. Later, she finds that Anirudh has asked for a transfer to Kanpur. Kavita admits defeat and decides to leave the school as the school needs him more than her. Manju finds out that Anirudh has broken up the engagement and speaks to him. She makes Anirudh realize that even Kavita has a complex that she was somehow betraying her first husband by loving Anirudh, and so she created a story that her love is motivated by a higher calling of sacrifice. The movie ends with Anirudh and Kavita being touched by the depth of their feelings for one another and finally seeing a way out.
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