Gopi Desai

Right from Peon to Principal, and from the most lowly menial staff to the office of the Prime Minister, modern secular India is embedded in corruption by officials who brag that even if Mahatma Gandhi were to approach them to grant access to his very own Sabarmati Ashram, he would not be spared. In this era a honest man is defined as one who readily accepts a bribe and does the needful, while a dishonest man is one who accepts a bribe but refuses to do the needful. It is in this atmosphere that the Kapoor family live. This family consists of Suresh Kumar Kapoor, a Professor at a Delhi college; his wife, Sarita, who is a Librarian, and a son who is Captain Rohit in the 7th Jat Regiment of the Indian Army. Suresh is pitted against the corrupt system when he receives word that his son has been killed in Kargil, when the fragile truce between Pakistan and India was broken, resulting in thousands of deaths on both sides. In condolence, Suresh and Sarita receive messages from various army officials, politicians, including the State Chief Minister as well the President of India. Their to-be daughter-in-law, Peehu A. Verma is shattered by Rohit's death, and decides never to get married. The army offers them a plot of land so that they can open a petrol pump as a means of livelihood. Suresh, Peehu and a reluctant Sarita decide to call it "Kargil Heights" and go about obtaining the necessary documents to get it running, little knowing that the corrupt system will not permit them to take a step forward without bribing it's officers, of all ranks, who will refuse to issue any permit unless and until their palms are greased. Will Suresh, Sarita and Peehu ever be able to open "Kargil Heights", or will it just remain a dream? —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Jagmohan Laal aka Jugran (Anupam Kher) is a crime lord who wants to climb up the crime ladder. When Customs Officer Verma (Dalip Tahil) tries to arrest him, he escapes. To save his skin, Jugran kills his twin brother Manmohan (Jugran had hid at Manmohan's house, but Manmohan tried to inform the police) and takes his identity. The world is led to believe that Jugran is still on the run. Jugran kills Mr. Verma and Dr. Ashok (the guy who helped hide the diamonds in the plaster of his hand to help smuggle them across customs), destroying both their families in process. While Verma's orphaned sons Ramesh (Anil Kapoor) and Ravi (Jackie Shroff) are separated from each other, Dr. Ashok's daughter Seema (Sridevi) is left with her distraught mother, who has lost her sanity. Before dying Mr. Verma identified his killer as Jugran to the police. Uncle D'Souza (Akash Khurana) of Seema, had seen the killer entering Dr Ashok's office just before he entered his clinic and hence could identify the killer in a line-up. Ravi was brought up by his mother, while Ramesh found his way to an orphanage. Seema/Simmi is at the same orphanage. Seema and Ramesh become good friends, but Seema is adopted while she is a child and is separated from Ramesh. Ramesh loves Simmi and runs from the orphanage. He is found by Girdharilal on the streets, and is given a new name, Romeo. Romeo is now working for Seth Girdharilal (Paresh Rawal), who mentors many thieves and thugs like him. Many years later, Jugran has become a big name in the criminal underworld. He lives a double life, acting also as his twin brother Manmohan, who is highly respected in society. Ravi Verma, meanwhile, has become an Inspector and Ramesh has become a crook - a safe-cracker by the name of Romeo. The brothers are unaware of each other's identities, but there is one things that binds them together: one has a lock, the other has the only key that can open the lock. Seema too has become a crook, called Simmi, and her path starts crossing with Romeo's. Seema steals diamonds as she wants to find the man who killed her father for the sake of diamonds. They both want to steal the necklace from Maharani Yashudhara Devi (Bindu). Ravi is tasked by his commanding officers to find and apprehend the jewel thief. Seema manages to steal the necklace first but is trapped when Ravi seals the exits from the party. Romeo helps her out by getting the necklace out via his pet pigeon. But later, when Seema wants 50-50 share, he refuses. Seema tries to outfox Ramesh by creating a public ruckus that she is his wife, and he is selling her last jewels. Ramesh outfoxes her by saying that she has not consummated their marriage even after 2 years. Seema runs away. She gets one up on Ramesh by stealing a jeweled statue which Ramesh wanted to steal. Only Ravi knows that Jugran killed his father. One day Seema runs into "Manmohan" and realizes that it was he who had killed her father. Jugran himself needs somebody to pull a Rs 100 Crore robbery (a train with Rs 100 Crores of diamonds travels from Kohinoor diamonds company, and on its way to Bombay it passes through an isolated stretch for 15 mins. Jugran plans to stage a robbery then). Seema meets "Manmohan", when she hides in his car after she is running away from some creditors. While reciting her life story, "Manmohan" realizes that she is Dr Ashok's daughter. Next, He meets Seema (as Jugran) and tells her that he will need her help to involve Romeo in the operation. Simmi hesitates, until Jugran reveals that he knows the identity of her father's murderer. She meets Romeo and tries to seduce him, but Romeo berates her. Simmi reveals her story to him. Romeo is surprised to see Simmi's mother, since it means that Simmi is actually his childhood sweetheart Seema. Now he reveals his true identity to Seema, and the two pair up. Jugran tells them that first they need to open the safe of the GM of the Kohinoor diamond company as only there they can find when the diamond train is scheduled to travel next month. Ramesh cracks the safe while Seema keeps the audience engaged with her dance at the GM's party. Jugran kidnaps the family of D'Souza, whom Seema is in touch with, to ensure that even by mistake D'Souza does not identify Manmohan/Jugran as her father's killer. Later Jugran gets D'Souza killed in a car accident. Meanwhile, Ravi too gets an inkling that Jugran is planning something big with help of Simmi and Romeo. Ravi and Romeo run into each other, only for Romeo to learn that they are brothers (Ravi had the lock to which Romeo had the key). But he doesn't reveal this to Ravi, since Ravi is a policeman and against criminals. Romeo refuses to loot the train (his pet pigeon scratches Jugran's hand and stop him from shooting at Romeo) but is forced to support Seema. Meanwhile Girdharilal gets annoyed that Ramesh is stealing for someone else and informs police/Ravi. Ramesh steals the diamonds, but Ravi attacks. Jugran's men also attack Ramesh, but he evades them and reunites with Seema. They are confronted by Girdharilal, who wants the diamonds, but Jugran's men kill him. Simmi and Romeo finally succeed in turning over the loot to Jugran. After they do this, he binds and gags them after telling Simmi the truth, leaving the pair to die by falling into a container of boiling acid (they are tied up by a rope, which is slowly dissolved by acid). They are saved by Romeo's pet pigeon who manages to throw a ladder in their way which they catch when they fall into the well of acid. . Romeo and Simmi escape, but they get separated from each other. Romeo runs into Ravi, whereupon the latter tries to arrest him. After Romeo tells him the truth, an enraged Ravi reveals to Ramesh that Jugran killed their father too. Ramesh escapes and rejoins Simmi. When he sees "Manmohan" on TV, Ramesh tells Seema that Manmohan and Jugran are the same person. They head to a party that Manmohan is attending. Meanwhile, Ravi gets a tip-off, upon which he turns up at a party almost simultaneously with Ramesh and Seema. Ramesh reveals that when his pigeon perched on Jugran's left hand it left claw marks, just as seen on Manmohan's left hand. Therefore, Manmohan and Jugran are same person. Ravi scoffs at the claim and tells them that Manmohan's fingerprints are available, and it won't be difficult to find out that Manmohan and Jugran are indeed two different people. Seeing that his charade is about to come to an abrupt end, Jugran tries to run away. It is revealed that Ramesh had given the tip-off about Jugran to Ravi. Jugran succeeds in escaping, while his men try to kill Ravi, Ramesh and Seema. The three manage to fight their way to Jugran, who himself tries to shoot them. The trio quickly retaliate, killing him on spot.

Bhavani is a journalist who tries to fight for the prostitutes, including Janki and her daughter, Gopi. But she is met with resentment of the local don, Phatte Dada. She gets help from a politician, Purshottam who allows her to run a newspaper publication and calls for criminal proceedings against Phatte. But her trust is soon shattered when she is implicated for defaming Purshottam`s name and operating a brothel and her mother, who identifies Purshottam as her husband`s killer, is accused of killing her father and is subsequently confined to a mental institute. Whether other characters in the story meet the same fate owing to the influence of the corrupted politicians and officials, forms the rest of the story.

A carefully constructed nonsense about a teenage boy named Om in a small Indian village.

Kalpana (Rekha) is a young woman with a compulsive tendency to lie, often using her fabrications for what she perceives as benevolent outcomes, such as helping others in distress or facilitating positive changes in her family's life. She lives with her elder brother Kamal (Amol Palekar), a strict police inspector who frequently warns her that her deceptions will eventually lead to serious trouble, her younger sister Alpana (Prema Narayan), and their mother Shanti (Shammi) in a middle-class household. Despite Kamal's admonitions, Kalpana continues her pranks and white lies, believing they serve a greater good. For e.g. Kalpana tells Kamal that his best friend Ranjan has been injured in an accident. Kamal rushes to meet him and finds that his friend is perfectly alright. Kalpana told a lie as Kamal never made time in his busy life to meet his friends. Kalpana's friend wants to complete her education to get a job and contribute towards supporting her home. But she did not have money to pay her fees. So, Kalpana mortgaged her gold chain to pay for her fees and told Kamal that her chain had been stolen. Later, her friend gets the money from her brother and returns the chain, but meets Kamal instead, to whom she narrates the whole story. Kamal is investigating a local drug gang who is supplying drugs to the betel leave shops in the area. Kamal raids the establishment of Babulal (Goga Kapoor) who is a mafia don of the area. A man named Sunil runs away from the raid and turns out he is the brother of Dr Anil Gupta. Professor Puri is the family elder friend of Kamal and Kalpana. Professor Puri congratulates Kamal on his raid and wants to know how he knew where to conduct the raid. Kamal conveniently dodges the question and does not divulge his sources. Puri says that police work is too dangerous and encourages him to take on a different line of work as he has 2 sisters to marry and a widow mother to take care of. Kamal harbors feelings for their neighbor Seema (Supriya Pathak), a kind-heart woman living with her mother (Dina Pathak), but struggles to express them due to his reserved nature. Kalpana fabricates scenarios to bring them together, including staging chance encounters and exaggerating compliments to boost Kamal's confidence. Meanwhile, Alpana works at a travel agency and is secretly in love with her customer Rasiklal (Deven Verma), a humorous but somewhat bumbling man. However, their mother arranges Alpana's marriage to the respectable Dr. Anil Gupta (Raj Babbar) to secure her future. To sabotage this alliance and allow Alpana to pursue Rasiklal, Kalpana spreads false rumors claiming Dr. Gupta is untrustworthy and has a questionable character, successfully halting the wedding plans. Kalpana tells Shanti that she had once gone to Dr Anil for an ankle sprain and he ended up sexually harassing her. Dr Anil considered Seema as his sister and her mother as his own mother. Seema finds out about Kalpana's story and confronts Anil. Anil is adamant that nothing of the sort happened between them. Anil meets Seema's mother and tells her the same and says that Kalapana is lying as he has never even seen her. Kalpana is proven to be a liar when Seema's mother introduces Anil to Kalpana, and she does not recognize him. When Kamal confronts Kalpana, she says that Alpana loves someone else and hence she had to resort to lies to break her match with Dr Anil. Kamal meets Rasik, without telling him that he is Alpana's brother, and tells him to meet Alpana's family to ask for her hand in marriage. Kamal then tells Kalpana and Alpana that he has selected a boy to marry Alpana who is coming to meet her. Alpana is devastated and Kalpana decides to intervene. She gets a neighborhood kid and gets him to say that he is Alpana's son. Kalpana intercepts Rasik, without knowing that he is Alpana's Rasik and tells him that Alpana was married once earlier and had 2 kids from that union. Rasik runs away. When Alpana meets Rasik later that day, she realizes that it was Rasik who Kamal had selected as her groom. Kalpana sprains her ankle in a sports competition at college and ends up going to a clinic without realizing that it belongs to Anil. Ironically, when Kalpana meets Dr. Gupta to apologize for her slander, she develops genuine romantic feelings for him, leading to her own courtship filled with initial misunderstandings stemming from her earlier lies. Kalpana tells Anil that she only told a lie as Alpana loved another man. Kalpana organizes a picnic where she gets to spend time with Anil, Kamal with Seema and Rasik with Alpana. Later, Kalpana goes to meet Anil at his house and ends up meeting Sunil who she witnesses consuming drugs in his room. Kalpana confronts Sunil but then protects his secret in front of Anil. Sunil is embarrassed and decides to give up drugs. Complications escalate when Dr. Gupta's younger brother Sunil becomes entangled in a dangerous drug trafficking operation run by a criminal gang masquerading as academics, led by a figure posing as a professor. Puri (Madan Puri). Puri realizes that Sunil knows Kalpana and hence Kamal. He figures that Sunil is the mole in their organization due to which the police have been able to raid all their dens. Puri asks Babulal to eliminate Sunil and Kalpana. In a bid to save Kalpana, Sunil murders one of Babulal's henchmen. Kamal investigates the murder and arrests Sunil. Sunil (Rasik Dave) gets framed for a related murder, prompting Dr. Gupta to seek help from Kamal. Desperate to protect her newfound love and his family, Kalpana testifies in court with a fabricated story to exonerate Sunil. Kalpana says that on the day of the murder, Sunil was with her at a holiday resort for the entire day and night. Dr. Gupta believes the worst about Kalpana's chastity and her entire family turns against her. The situation worsens as the drug gang, seeking revenge for the interference, kidnaps Kalpana to silence her. Kamal leverages his police resources, with assistance from Dr. Gupta and Rasiklal, to track down and rescue Kalpana from the gang's hideout in a tense confrontation that exposes the criminals' operations. The rescue succeeds, leading to the arrest of the traffickers and Sunil's full vindication. As the dust settles, the accumulated lies are unraveled through honest confessions: Kalpana admits her deceptions were rooted in good intentions to support her loved ones, earning forgiveness from Kamal, who reflects on how her actions ultimately benefited everyone despite the chaos. The romantic entanglements resolve happily. Kamal marries Seema, Alpana weds Rasiklal, and Kalpana unites with Dr. Gupta, affirming that while truth is ideal, compassionate lies can sometimes pave the way for positive outcomes.