Mandi

About the film

Mandi (English: Market Place) is a 1983 Hindi-language film directed by Shyam Benegal. Based on a classic Urdu short story Aanandi by writer Ghulam Abbas, the film narrates the story of a brothel, situated in the heart of a city, an area that some politicians want for its prime locality. The film is a satirical comedy on politics and prostitution, and stars Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah among others.

The film won the 1984 National Film Award for Best Art Direction for Nitish Roy. It was selected at Indian Panorama at Filmostav, Bombay 1984, and was invited to the Los Angeles Exposition (FILMEX), the Hong Kong International Film Festival 1984, and London Film Festival 1983.

Plot

For years, an aging Rukmini Bai 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, who is a classical singer, and Basanti, who is a classical dancer. Rukmini Bai is quite possessive about the virginal Zeenat and does not let her get into prostitution. She is protective of her from the customers who wish to deflower Zeenat.

One day Rukmini Bai learns that she now has a new landlord Mr. Gupta, whose daughter Malti is to marry Mr. Aggarwal's son, Sushil, shortly. Given the finesse of Zeenat and Basanti, Mr. Gupta invites Rukmini Bai with her women to perform at his daughter's engagement ceremony. During the performance, Sushil is smitten by Zeenat's beauty and approaches her in the dressing room. Zeenat also gets attracted to Sushil. Meanwhile, it is shown that the City Councillor, Shantidevi, who also runs the Women's Organisation of the town is averse to Rukmini Bai and her doings. In a Municipal Committee meeting, she 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 the outskirts of the city which happens to be near the Dargah of Baba Karak Shah. This attracts a lot of people, and Rukmini Bai's brothel starts thriving.

In the meantime, Rukmini Bai gets to know about the budding love between Zeenat and Sushil and 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 a secret for years, in order to save Mr. Aggarwal's reputation. This makes Zeenat and Sushil half-siblings and renders their romantic relationship incestuous.

Soundtrack

The lyrics of the film's songs are by Mir Taqi Mir, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Insha, Makhdoom Mohiuddin and Sarwar Danda with music composed by Vanraj Bhatia.

Vocals were provided by Asha Bhosle for Smita Patil, and Preeti Sagar for Neena Gupta.

Key details