Shyam Benegal

A 2001 film, directed by Shyam Benegal, is a story written about the ill fate of the actress Zubeida Begum by her own son Khalid Mohammed. This is a story of a son`s attempt to understand his mother, Zubeidaa. It basically portrays the life of Zubeiga begum and the choices she made.

The police are called to investigate the death of a woman who was killed during a riot by a stone thrown by an agitated person. She was known in the community as "Sardari Begum", a popular singer and courtesan in her time. This story chronicles her youth, her contacts, and her lifestyle. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was invited to South Africa in 1893 to settle a case for a wealthy Indian settled there. He expected to return in a few months but instead got involved in the freedom movement and eventually stayed for 21 years. One of two feuding Mohammedan cousins of Indian origin living in Britain seek the assistance of an Indian Barrister to travel to Britain and settle their matter in a court of law. The Barrister travels to Britain, and finds that all Asians are treated as coolies and their status is worse than of servants. Despite being dressed in a suit and a tie, he is thrown out of a first-class train compartment; is asked to remove his cap in a court of law; asked to ride with the driver of the coach; and even shoved out on the footpath for daring to walk close to a bureaucrat's premises; beaten, and abused with no recourse to any justice. His attempts to deal with these issues is met with strong governmental and bureaucratic disapproval and opposition. Notwithstanding this, he settles the dispute between the two cousins out of court and sets about trying to organize the local Asians to assert their rights, and even represents some of them in court. Then he journeys to Durban, South Africa, where yet another struggle is taking place against the native Africans and the emigrant Asian community. This is where this young man summons his wife and three children and decides to garner support of the oppressed community to improve the lot of all people, and where he will find that though the laws are on his side, the people who interpret them, and legislators are opposed to any kind of fair or equal treatment that this young Barrister was requesting. The young Barrister will then re-locate to India to continue his struggle against the British--and he will soon be known and acknowledged by the world as Mahatma Gandhi. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Parmino is a small village in Central India, headed by a Village Committee comprising of all males. When the Government of India notifies the Committee that a third of them must be women, including people in schedules caste and tribes, the Sarpanch, Ratan Singh, decides to let women run for the election as well have seats in the Panchayat. After the meeting gets over, he asks his son, Inder, to get Manju, his wife, to sign the nomination papers. Also asked are the wife of another Panchayat member, as well as Vidya, the newly marred bride of a poor store owner, Bhanwar, who is indebted to Inder and Ratan Singh. In this way, Ratan and Inder hope to control the women through their respective husbands, and rule over the Panchayat as they have done before. They are in for a surprise when Vidya turns the tables on them, asking them to account where the funds for the partially built school were misappropriated as well having the rest of the village attend Gram Panchayat meetings and voice their concerns and grievances. Watch what happens when Ratan and Inder decide to use their influence in the community as well as over Bhanwar to throttle Vidya's voice. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Mammo moves to Pakistan during the Partition. Years later, with nowhere else to go, she visits Bombay to meet her sister and grandson but struggles to extend her visa. 13 year old Riyaz lives a poor lifestyle in Bombay, India, with his grandmother, Fayyuzi, and her sister, Mehmooda alias Mammo. Quite outspoken and embittered over his dad abandoning him, Riyaz does not have many friends, save for Rohan. When Mammo plans a surprise birthday party for him, Riyaz is offended as he believes his friends will make fun of him as his lifestyle is not as good as their's. Fayyuzi and Riyaz have an argument with Mammo, and she leaves for the Mosque at Haji Ali, but returns when both apologize to her. Although Mammo was born in Panipat during the British Raj, she was one of thousands of Muslims who left for Pakistan. She was married over there, could not conceive, was branded a "barren woman", and asked to leave. Having nowhere else to go, she came to live with her widowed sister in Bombay on a temporary Visa. Every month she would walk to the nearest Police Station and get an extension. She finally paid a Rs.4800/ as a bribe in order to get a permanent visa through Inspector Apte. When Apte was transferred, a new Police Inspector took over, processed her papers, held her to be an illegal immigrant, arrested her, had her escorted to the Bombay Central Railway Station, board the Frontier Mail, which would return her to Pakistan. Riyaz and Fayyuzi make every possible attempt to trace and bring her back, which was all in vain. Now 20 years later, Riyaz has grown up and has written a book about his Mammo, hoping that someday, somewhere she will find it and they will be reunited again. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

"This film narrative takes place over seven days during which time Manek Mulla, a young man barely out of his teens, tells three stories about himself. These stories revolve around Manek's involvement with women. In each case one or another circumstance leads to his separation from his beloved. The tone of the stories is tongue-in- cheek and sometimes borders on the fantastic and surreal. There is consistency and ambiguity a blurring of distinction between the real and the invented. For Menak Mulla, the purpose of telling these stories is to define the meaning of love. As it transpires, none of the stories Manek tells actually define Love. If they do, they define what love is not. The film is a comedy but not without a twinge of pain and a sense of loss. "

In 1961, the grandfather of a Portuguese family in Goa dies and his wife tries to call upon his ghost but ends up calling the souls of people the family has wronged in the past.

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.

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)