Sudhir Pandey

Anwar, a middle-class Muslim, falls in love with Mehru, his next-door neighbour. Post her death, he is caught by the police, and a misunderstanding leads them to believe that he is a terrorist. Anwar is a Muslim who lives a middle-class lifestyle in Lucknow, India, along with his mom, brother, and Bhabhi, Suraiya. Anwar is doing a research on ancient Hindu Mandirs. They rent out a room to a poor widow and her attractive daughter, Mehru. Anwar falls in love with her. Anwar is certain of Mehru's love for him, but is shocked when he finds out that she has eloped with Udit, his Hindu friend, who is about to immigrate to America. He informs her mother, who in turn calls upon her nephew and other kith and kin, to locate Mehru. They do locate the couple abroad a bus, Udit is killed, while Mehru is beaten and ultimately hangs herself. A guilt-ridden Anwar takes shelter in an ancient Mandit in Dholpur and his bag, which contained drawings of Mandirs and notes on 'Lord Krishna', 'Devi Maa Meera', and 'Mehru'. This bag ends up with the Police and they believe that Anwar is a terrorist who is planning to detonate bombs in sacred Hindu temples. The place is surrounded by Police, politicians who are anxious to win the Hindu vote, the media, and a huge crowd who are here to see the show. Anwar contemplates his life and gets visits from 3 people. The first is an extremist Imam, who tells him to kill himself rather than surrender; the second is Police Superintendent Ashok Tiwari, who wants him to surrender quickly so that he can be with his ailing wife and young daughter; and the third is media-person, Anita, who wants a live interview so that she can establish her credibility with her boss. Set amongst post 9-11 scenario, amidst the craze for Valentine's day, Britney Spears, Osama Bin Laden, George W. Bush, and the American way of life, Anwar must now examine his options - the question is what will he ultimately decide? —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Abandoned as a baby in a garbage bin by his biological parents; a boy faces the harsh realities of life and years later grows up to be a young man as a paid assassin, blackmailer, kidnapper and a rapist. One of his rape victim is Jyoti; who was deflower while she was getting marry to a doctor. Jyoti then takes up resident with a woman, Savitri, who happens to live right in the same village and across his place of dwelling. Her aspiration is to get him to marry her; all her attempts seems unsuccessful until she decides to fake pregnancy. That is when he decides to take her in; at first they live among ruins without any roof but eventually everything changes with patience and time. Jyoti even provide him with a name Deepak for others to address him. Jyoti and Deepak then get marry and soon are parents to a baby boy. After marriage; Deepak even give up crime but must clear his name when he stands accused of killing a politician named Abinandan Tiwari and a female named Kameshwari. —gavin (racktoo@hotmail.com) Found in a garbage bin, abandoned by his biological parents, a young man grows up to a paid assasin, kidnapper, and rapist (Anil Kapoor). One of his rape victims' is Jyoti (Juhi Chawla), who is raped on the day of her marriage to a doctor groom. Her life ruined, unwed, she decides to convince her rapist to marry her, and goes to live in his neighborhood. But her rapist will not marry her, however, she continues to pursue her goal, and after feigning a pregnancy she does convince him to allow her to move in with him - amongst ruins, without a roof. She soon starts to transform him, with considerable success. She names him Deepak, so that he has a name others can call him by. Deepak receives a contract to kill Kaameshwari (Rohini Hattangadi) by Jaikal (Amrish Puri). Deepak refuses to take this contract, and shortly thereafter he is arrested by the police for Kaameshwari's death. With a background such as his, can be able to convince the authorities that he was not involved in her death, and that he was framed for it. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Mona D'Silva (Dimple Kapadia) runs a small restaurant in Goa. Raja (Kamal Haasan), who lives close by, is a good friend & a fisherman. He is in love with her but is unable to profess his feelings. Raja is waiting to earn enough money, so he can buy his own boat and can provide the luxuries of life to Mona. Thekedaar (Goga Kapoor) is the owner of the docks & the boats. Cheena (Lilliput) is Raja's mute friend and Raja looks out for him Mr D'Silva (Saeed Jaffrey) is Mona's father and likes Raja. Miss Joseph (Nadira) is Raja's adoptive mom & knows Raja loves Mona. Mr Silva wants Mona to marry Raja, but she considers him as only a friend. Vikram (Shafi Inamdar) is the GM of a large fishing company. Batuk Laal (Satish Kaushik) is his assistant. They both work for Kamla Devi (Madhur Jaffrey), the owner of the firm. Vikram wants to ban small fisherman from the sea as their catch impact the market price of the company's products. Kamla Devi is Vikram's aunt, and he dreams of inheriting her wealth and position. But she informs Vikram that her grandson is moving to Goa from the US. Kamla does not like that her son married a commoner due to which Ravi was born. Vikram had eyes on Kamla's wealth and is not happy that Ravi is moving back to Goa, as the heir apparent. Kamla's son and his wife died when Ravi was 7 yrs old. Kamla brought Ravi back, but kept him in hostel for all his life, and only now decided to bring him to Goa to stay with her. Ravi (Rishi Kapoor) moves to Goa and Kamla wants him to manage the business. Ravi does not like that Kamla speaks disparagingly about his parents, and for taunting his death father for wasting his life by marrying his commoner mother. Ravi sees Mona swimming naked in the early morning sun on the beach and goes nuts. One day Vikram decides to drive his boat right through the local fishermen's nets that were deployed in the ocean, damaging them substantially. Raja is a witness and asks Vikram for compensation at his office. Vikram refuses, but Ravi intervenes and agrees to pay, as he has sympathy for the poor. Ravi starts pursuing Mona, and even serenades her. Mona and Ravi fall in love of which Raja knows nothing. Meanwhile Vikram advises Kamla to drop their fish prices in the market. This would force the poor fishermen to match their prices, which they cannot afford as they need to pay interest on their borrowings. This pricing move would wipe out all the poor fishermen of the area and allow Kamla to corner the entire market. Kamla approves the pricing move. The fishermen led by Raja contemplate their next move, but Ravi reaches out to Raja and befriends him, by drinking with him at a local bar. The friendship between Ravi and Raja grows. Ravi wants to marry Mona, but hesitates to ask her dad, so he decides to ask Raja to represent him. But before Ravi can ask, Raja tells Ravi how much he loves Mona, but hasn't had the courage to tell her. Ravi is heartbroken, and decides to step back from Mona. when Ravi finds that Raja is waiting to buy his own boats before he proposes to Mona, he arranges for a family friend to give Raja a business investment (without Raja ever realizing that the investment came from Ravi). Ravi writes a letter to Mona, and tells her that he is going away. They meet for one last time, and Ravi tells Mona that Raja loves her. Meanwhile Raja is ecstatic that he now has a business investment to buy his own boats. He prepares to propose to Mona. He rushes to Mona, only to find Mona and Ravi in a deep embrace. Raja is heartbroken and spends the whole night alone and drinking. Miss Joseph finds out about Raja's heartbreak. The next day Mona approaches Raja and says that she loves Ravi. And Ravi wont even talk to her, unless Raja fixes things between them, as he does not want to come between Mona and Raja. She categorically says that Raja is a great friend to her, but nothing more. To placate Mona, Raja pretends that all of this was only a ruse to get Ravi and Mona to profess their love for each other publicly. Raja then helps reunite Ravi with Mona. Post this Raja leaves with Miss Jospeh to visit her sister. Vikram tells Kamla about Ravi's affair with Mona. Ravi's grandmother, Kamladevi, is opposed to their love because of class differences. Ravi brings Mona to meet Kamla, but she was away on business trip. Ravi gives a holiday to all servants and proceeds to have some frolic with Mona. But Vikram finds out and tells Kamla that Ravi is alone at her bungalow with Mona. Kamla returns to the house and forces Mona to leave without meeting her properly. Kamla refuses to meet Mona formally, but tells Ravi to send Mr D'Silva to meet her. Kamla insults D'Silva over his and his daughter's status, and throws D'Silva out of her house. D'Silva has an heart attack after he is beaten up by Kamla's goons. When Kamla refuses to apologize to the D'Silva family, Ravi leaves her. Ravi goes to meet D'Silva, but is beaten up by the villagers and thrown outside the village. Kamla asks Vikram to buy the loans of the entire village. Kamla then sends the police with court orders to seize the boats of the entire village. The villagers send Mona to beg Kamla to relent. Kamla offers her a choice between Ravi and the welfare of the entire village. Kamla orders Mona to marry someone else within 7 days. Ravi threatens Kamla that if Mona gets married, he will commit suicide. Meanwhile Raja returns from his trip, & D'Silva asks Raja to marry Mona. Raja decides to help Mona and Ravi. Ravi finds out that Raja really loved Mona and that he sacrificed his own love for the sake of his friendship with Ravi. Ravi is shocked. Meanwhile Kamla decides that she cannot afford to lose Ravi and tells Vikram to get him back, by telling him that she is ready to accept all of his demands. Vikram decides to kill Ravi. Vikram abducts Mona and forces Ravi to surrender. He wants Ravi to commit suicide, but Raja intervenes and attacks Vikram's goons. Raja defeats the goons and asks Ravi and Mona to leave town asap. Ravi refuses to take Mona with him, as he knows that Raja loves Mona. But then Vikram gets up and shoots at Ravi. Raja sees this and comes in between, taking the bullets on himself. Ravi kills Vikram, but Raja dies. Kamla accepts Ravi and Mona.