Vanraj Bhatia

Set in the rural areas of Kutch, Gujarat, the story of Dhaad is based on the life of Ghelo, an impotent man and his desperate search for water, his lost land, and a child. In his endeavor to prove his conviction that the rich and powerful can only be contained by asserting power over them, Ghelo forcibly involves his friend, Pranjivan in a raid over the landlord's wealth. During the raid, the landlord's pregnant daughter challenges Ghelo and slowly his conviction begins to fade away. His strength is drained and he suffers a fatal paralysis stroke.

Atin and Ela are revolutionaries who are deeply in love with each other but their union is not accepted by the group's leader Indranath. To separate them, Indranath sends Ela off to a distant camp. Based on Rabindranath Tagore's last novel, Char Adhyay is set in the Bengali Renaissance of the 1930s and 1940s. A group of young intellectuals gets embroiled in the struggle for Indian independence, sometimes at the expense of their personal lives. The film, in which many of the cast members are not professional actors, raises questions about nationalism.

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)

Raghu is a poor school going child. One day a magical stranger gifts him a red coat. Raghu discovers that whenever he puts his hand in the coats pocket, a rupee appears. He and his friends have a good time with this endless supply of one rupee coins. A gang of three and his own brother-in-law discover the secret of the coat and try to steal it. Raghu tries hard to protect both himself and his magical coat even as he realizes an important lesson that easy money comes with its own problems and cannot be enjoyed for long. —Somnath Dutta

"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. "

After years of painstaking research at the cost of his domestic pleasure, Dr. Dipankar Roy discovers a vaccine for leprosy. The news is flashed over television and overnight, an insignificant junior doctor receives international recognition. Professional jealousy and abuse of power threaten Dr. Roy, even as the Secretary of Health reprimands him for breaking the news to the press. He is asked to report to the Director of Health. Professional colleagues Dr. Arijit Sen and Dr. Ramananda invite him to a lecture but it is merely a pretence to humiliate him. Dr. Roy suffers a mild heart attack but he refuses to go to the hospital. His wife and few others like Dr. Kundu stand by Dr. Roy, but the harassment continues; a letter from an American foundation is suppressed and Dr. Roy transferred to a remote village. The last straw is two American doctors receiving credit for discovering the same vaccine. Dr. Roy is shattered. —Rajesh Das The movie is one of the finest work of veteran Tapan Sinha. It revolves around the life of Dr. Dipankar Roy who has engrossed himself in researching a cure of a dreaded diseases. During the course, he has already ruined his relationship with his wife due his ignorance. After years of hard work, when he finds a breakthrough in his research, his work is publicized but it attains negative reviews and skepticism from noted doctors, bureaucrats and his peers. It leads to immense dissatisfaction and is driven to a point of insanity due to the exasperating outlook of people around him. Will the work done by the doctor ever attain any recognition or will he be flushed in the vortex of democracy? These questions are answered by the movie with some exemplary performances by Pankaj Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Anil Chatterjee and budding Irrfan Khan. —Utkarsh Srivastava

Percy lives with his mother in a Parsi colony in Bombay. One day, Percy discovers a fraud in the office accounts. This event has far-reaching consequences in the lives of Percy and his mother, Banubai.

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.

Madhav Verma (Om Puri) is a dedicated, honest, and diligent union representative. He represents the majority of the employees in an organization, which recognizes his union. However, there is a rival in the shape and form of Rustom Patel (Naseeruddin Shah) who is attempting to break the union so as to establish his majority, through his henchman Krishnan (Gopi), and will not hesitate to stoop to any level to get what he wants. Chhotelal (Pankaj Kapoor) loses his legs in an accident, and must be hospitalized. Krishnan takes advantage of the situation and puts pressure on Chhotelal and his brothers (Achyut Potdar and Harish Patel) to enroll in his union, and he will get him a higher compensation package than his regular union. Madhav must use his utmost diligence and consistently uphold his principles as they will be put to a test before all logic gives way to violence, anarchy, apathy, and corruption. —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.

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.