Satyadev Dubey

St. Marks is a school full of bright teenagers having aspirations and looking to make a mark on the world. But teenage life isn`t just about school, it`s also about love and crushes. It is the period where everyone is growing up and moving on. In this competitive, confusing and sometimes cruel world, we have four characters whose destinies seem to take them on different paths. Somehow, though, they all come together at St. Marks.

A planned social gathering is held to commemorate Divakar Barve for the award he receive pertaining his contributions to Indian Arts and films. The social event is greeted by some important public personalities of the community all expect Amrit; an activist. But the atmosphere of the event will come to a drastic change upon the arrival of Avinash. —gavin (racktoo@hotmail.com) The Government of India has chosen to present a literary award to Divakar Barve in recognition of his contribution to Indian Arts and Cinema. Divakar accepts this award, and the community decides to recognize this award-recipient at a special party just for him. Several big-wigs in Bombay city are invited, and they include Mohini, the alcoholic and aging wife of Divakar; Ravi an actor; Bharat an aspiring actor and poet; An aging Ruth who is always accompanied by a much younger boyfriend; Poet and producer, Agashe; Ila Arun the singer; and Achyut Potdar a Bollywood actor. Everyone awaits the arrival of Amrit, an activist. What the invitees do not know that the party is going to be gate-crashed by the host's, Mrs. Damyanti Rane's son and his teen-aged friend; a couple, Naren and Malvika; Then something unexpected happens: Amrit does arrive - but not in the way everybody expected him to arrive. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Rukmini Bai has been running a brothel for years and business is thriving. But when one of the girls has an illicit affair, the whole establishment is threatened.

For years, an aging Rukmini Bai (Shabana Azmi) has been the Madame of a brothel in Hyderabad, India. The women in the brothel live in harmony. Rukmini Bai takes pride in the talent of her women, especially Zeenat (Smita Patil) who is a classical singer and Basanti (Neena Gupta) who is a classical dancer. Rukmini Bai is quite possessive about Zeenat and does not let her get engaged in prostitution. Ramgopal (Om Puri) is a photographer who frequents the brothel. Ramgopal is lusting after Basanti, but she is not interested in him. The Doctor (Annu Kapoor) comes every month for health check-ups. Phoolmani (Sreela Majumdar) is a new entrant into the brothel. She was sold to the brothel for Rs 4000 by a supplier Srikanth (who had married Phoolmani and then lured her to the brothel) and she had a torrid start to her first day. She was frightened, ran all over the brothel, tried to escape and then finally lost the energy and calmed down. Rukmini is protective of her from the customers who wish to deflower Zeenat. One day Rukmini Bai gets the news, that she, now, has a new landlord Mr. Gupta (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), whose daughter Malti (Ratna Pathak) is to marry Mr. Aggarwal's (Saeed Jaffrey) son, Sushil (Aditya Bhattacharya), shortly. Given the finesse of Zeenat and Basanti, Mr. Gupta invites Rukmini Bai with her women to perform at the engagement ceremony of his son. During the performance, Sushil is smitten by Zeenat's beauty and approaches her in the dressing room. Zeenat also gets attracted to Sushil. In the meanwhile, it is shown that the City Councilor, Shantidevi (Gita Siddharth), who also runs the Women Organization of the town is averse to Rukmini Bai and her brothel. In reality Shanti Devi is coordinating with Mr. Gupta to build public opinion against the brothel, so he can get it demolished for his new construction project at the right time. Shantidevi's assistant (Pankaj Kapur) Via Mr Gupta, Shanti gets news that a minor Phoolmani has been kept at the brothel without her wishes. Shanti enters the brothel with a large public crowd to rescue the minor. But Rukmini traps Shanti's assistant in a room with one her other girls, who claims that he was trying to sexually assault her. This puts Shanti on the back foot, and she is forced to withdraw for the time being. Meanwhile Nadira tries to force Phoolmani into her first time. She has a stroke and later tries to commit suicide. To save Phoolmani the Doctor asks Rukmini to take her to a hospital, but since it is a suicide case, a police report is required first. And that means the entire brothel will be kept in a lockup, just so that Phoolmani can be saved. Mr. Agarwal bails the girls out. In a Municipal Committee meeting, Shanti proposes that the brothel should be moved out of town, in order to protect the town from getting corrupted. The committee agrees to her demands and Rukmini Bai and her women are forced to relocate to a new place in the outskirts of the city, which happens to be near the Dargah of Baba Karak Shah. Mr. Agarwal comes to apologize to Rukmini that he could not stop from the brothel being relocated but promises to take care of the Phoolmani case. Agarwal also gets Mr. Gupta to offer Rs 51K, a house and land to Rukmini at the new site, to help her relocate. But the new location attracts a lot of people (as it the religious grave site of one Baba Kharak Shah, whom the locals revere and visit often), and Rukmini Bai's brothel starts thriving. In the meanwhile, Rukmini Bai gets to know about the budding love between Zeenat and Sushil and she forbids Zeenat from going ahead with the relationship. She reveals that Zeenat is the illegitimate child of Mr. Aggarwal and another prostitute, and Rukmini Bai had kept it as a secret for years, in order to save the face of Mr. Aggarwal. It makes Zeenat and Sushil siblings and renders their romantic relationship as prohibited. The complications set in when Sushil refuses to marry Malti and runs away from his house in order to pursue Zeenat. He asks Zeenat to elope from the brothel with him in search of better existence and Zeenat accepts his proposal. The whole brothel is in a state of panic when the news of Zeenat's elopement breaks out. Rukmini Bai and Aggarwal go in search of the children. However, during the way, Zeenat is overcome by guilt as she is aware of their biological relationship and thus, runs away from Sushil as well. Sushil is heartbroken. Rukmini Bai too, is unable to come to terms with the news of Zeenat's disappearance. She is sobbing in her brothel and instead of getting sympathy, she is rebuked by a Nadira (Soni Razdan), a prostitute who works for her. She asks Rukmini Bai to exit the brothel as the women do not need her anymore and can run the brothel on their own. Rukmini Bai is in a state of shock and with a heavy heart, she quits the brothel with her faithful helper Tungrus (Naseeruddin Shah). On their way, due to exhaustion, they halt for water. While looking for water, Tungrus accidentally comes across a Shiv Lingam. He calls out to Rukmini Bai and they both pray to the Shivlingam for a better future. Just then, they see Phoolmani, a former brothel woman, running towards them. Rukmini Bai is delighted at the sight of Phoolmani and thanks the almighty.

A lawyer defends a man who has been accused of killing his own wife. As the case goes on, he comes to realise the harsh reality of the lives of people from scheduled castes.

Vishvam is one of four hoodlum brothers who rule a village. Though he is married, he gets infatuated by the new schoolmaster`s wife and conflicts arise when she is abducted.

A man whose wife is abducted seeks to have the culprits prosecuted for their crime, but no one will help him. Meanwhile, the wife-abused and berated by her abductors-cannot bring herself to face her husband. Vishwam (Naseeruddin Shah) is the youngest brother of the powerful and influential village Zamindar (Amrish Puri). The Zamindar will not hesitate to do anything for the welfare and protection of his family, which also includes bending the law to his own advantage. Vishwam is married to Rukmani (Smita Patil), and unlike his brothers, does not indulge in alcohol or women, nor does he have any bad habits. Then the village gets a new schoolmaster (Girish Karnad), who has a wife, Susheela (Shabana Azmi). When Vishwam sees her for the first time, he is unable to take his eyes off her, and unable to get her out of his mind. Susheela does not reciprocate his attentions. Then one night, Susheela is forcibly carried away in a car by the Zamindar's right-hand men (Mohan Agashe and Anant Nag). The schoolmaster's efforts to stop them are to no avail, and the several people present do nothing to stop this abduction. What will the schoolmaster do to get his wife back, knowing fully well that even the village policeman (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) kowtows to the Zamindar. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)