Intrigue

Forbidden love, fraying loyalties and flagrant hypocrisy emerge when sanctimonious politicians drive a madam's brothel from the heart of Hyderabad.

This classic film is based on a classic Urdu short story 'Aanandi' by Pakistani writer Ghulam Abbas. It deals with a brothel at the heart of a city, in an area that some politicians want for its prime locality. They rally up against the brothel and its inhabitants in the name of morality, and soon everyone in the area jumps on the bandwagon. The politicians offer to put up an alternative residence for the prostitutes, only this place is miles away, isolated from the city. The madam of the house has no choice but to comply, but by the end things take a (logical) turn for the better. After all, men will be men.—ajmal hussain <ajmalsaab@hotmail.com>

For years an aging Rukminibai has been the Madame of a Bordello in a small town in Maharashtra, India. One day she gets the news that she now has a new landlord which is Mr. Gupta, whose daughter, malti, is to marry shortly. Lead by City Councillor, Shantidevi, the people in this town demand that this bordello be moved elsewhere, preferably on the outskirts of the town, and they do succeed, compelling Rukmini to move with her women to their new location, which happens to be near the Dargah of Baba Karak Shah. Ironically, this attracts a lot of people, and the patronage to Rukmini's bordello increases. Then complications set in when Sushil refuses to marry his father's choice, child-like Malti, and wants to marry Zeenat - a prostitute who resides with Rukmini. Watch how events unfold against a bordello that is already moved once, and maybe again be re-located until such time Sushil gives up his love for Zeenat.—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

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.