Raj Kumar Santoshi has always been a director who's understood the mass idiom well. Here he tries his hand at an operatic tale of wronged women, set to an expansive Western classical score by Illaiyaraja and featuring an impressive cast of actors. While this film is now a cult classic, it has been criticized for its unrelenting tenor and loud pitch. However, fire-and-brimstone has always been a hallmark of Mr Santoshi's films, even as he has struggled to adapt to the changing cinematic mores of the last decade. COMPILED BY VIKRAM PHUKAN
RITU SHIVPURI plays a debauched woman who swings with Vaidehi's husband without compunction. She suitably meets her end in a car accident.
BEENA BANERJEE plays Vaidehi's hapless mother who's worried more about her other daughter who's reached a marriageable age.
"समझ गई। हर घर कि इज्जत लड़की की हाथ में हैं। मगर लड़की की कोई इज्जत नहीं।"
MANISHA KOIRALA plays Vaidehi, a woman on the run from her in-laws. Their only interest in her is the baby she's carrying in her womb. It's a male child.
ROHINI HATTANGADI plays the groom's mother who isn't happy with the Kanjeevanram saris she's been gifted by Maithili's mother and gives them to her servant.
AARTI BALDEV plays a self-righteous prostitute who has to beg for her dues from a bunch of goons who've ravished her. She only needs the money to get her sister married.
"बिना पैसे कि कौन मर्द शादी करता है साब?"
FARIDA JALAL plays the mother of a bride, whose is eager to please the groom's folk by meeting all their unresonable demands with a smile on her face.
JAYA BHATTACHARYA plays the young woman married to a much older man, who flirts indicriminately with other women while expecting her to be in purdah all day.
A woman who has to spend hours-on-end massaging the Thakur's legs, and can only carry on because she does it like she were strangling his neck.
AMARDEEP JHA plays an old lady whose daughter-in-law has taken good care of her even as her son turned out to be wastrel who disappeared on them.
A young girl who has been entrusted the care of her sister looks on wistfully at the village boys playing.
A woman who refuses to work for the Thakur (because she'd rather work with the women's collective) has her locks shorn off and her face blackened.
A woman who refuses to sell her body in exchange of drinking water is indicted as a petty thief and has her hands dipped into hot oil. Her son grows up to become a Robin Hood character.
AARTI CHHABRIA plays the young daughter of a village Thakur who falls in love with the enterprising son of a village woman, to the detriment of all concerned.
REKHA as Ram Dulari, the mid-wife, who is incarcerated because her son has run away with the Thakur's daughter.
MANISHA KOIRALA at the felicitation ceremony of a man responsible for the rape and murder of a progressive village-woman, Ram Dulari. She indicts him in public.
The women listen to Vaidehi's final speech with anger. They have to avenge the rape of Ram Dulari.
MAHIMA CHAUDHURY as Maithili breaks down at her wedding altar. She cannot take her father's humiliation any more and threatens to strip every member of the groom's party of the clothes he's provided them.
"अर्रे अब तो दुनिया तेरा तमाशा देखेगी! तू, तेरी बीवी, तेरे सारे रिश्तेदार, नौकर चाकर, सारे जितने यहॉ आये ना उन सब के कपड़े, यह सूट बूट, पगड़ी, मौजे, यहॉ तक कि बनियान रुमाल चड्डी तक मेरे पापा के दिये हुये हैं!"
DINA PATHAK plays the grandmother who praises Maithili for her courage and rues the fact that women in her time had taken so much lying down.
"तुने जो आज कहॉ, तुने जो आज किया, अगर अपने वक्त में हम कहते, हम करते, तो तुझे यह दिन देखना न परता।"
MAHIMA CHAUDHURY plays Maithili, an innocent girl who's about to get married to a boy she loves, unaware of the excessive dowry demands made by his father.
MADHURI DIXIT as Janaki instructs Vaidehi on how to relieve herself in public, like men do.
MADHURI DIXIT plays the stage artiste Janaki who's created a controversy by subverting the character of Sita as one who demands a trial by fire for Ram as well. A mob awaits her outside the theatre.
REKHA plays Ram Dulari, a progressive woman who runs a women's collective in the village. Here she rescues a girl child who was about to be drowned in a vat of milk.
This woman is the Thakur's wife who's forced to perform the last rites of her daughter who hasn't really died; she's merely eloped with a boy of lower stock.
