Mandi

Hindi · 1983 · 167 min

Directed by Shyam Benegal — Amrish Puri · Shabana Azmi · Kulbhushan Kharbanda · Smita Patil · Naseeruddin Shah

Set in a Hyderabad brothel run by the aging Rukmini Bai, this Shyam Benegal comedy-drama follows her efforts to protect her prized courtesans, including the gifted singer Zeenat, even as a moralizing city official pushes to have the establishment evicted for the sake of civic propriety. Complications mount when a wealthy young man becomes infatuated with Zeenat during a society engagement party, drawing the brothel and its residents into the schemes and hypocrisies of the city's elite. Adapted from Ghulam Abbas's Urdu story 'Aanandi,' the film uses this scenario to satirize the intersection of politics, morality, and commerce.

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