Damini

Damini
Directed by	Rajkumar Santoshi
Written by	Dilip Shukla
Produced by	Aly Morani Karim Morani Bunty Soorma
Starring	Rishi Kapoor Sunny Deol Meenakshi Sheshadri Vijayendra Ghatge Rohini Hattangadi Kulbhushan Kharbanda Amrish Puri Paresh Rawal Tinu Anand
Music by	Nadeem-Shravan
Release date	30 April 1993
Running time	176 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Damini - Lighting is a 1993 Hindi film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi starring Rishi Kapoor, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Sunny Deol, Amrish Puri, Tinu Anand and Paresh Rawal in lead roles.

The story is of how a woman fights against the society for truth. The film is also memorable for Sunny Deol's heroics as an advocate and gained him Filmfare and National Film Award for Best actor in a supporting role for 1993. The movie strengthened the Bollywood he-man image of Sunny Deol. The film was a milestone in the careers of Sunny Deol and Amrish Puri who gave some great hits like Ghayal,Gadar: Ek Prem Katha,Ghatak: Lethal together. Aamir Khan enacted in a very special appearance in the stage show dance song.

Synopsis

When Shekhar the son of wealthy Mr. Gupta goes to a small hill-station town, he is smitten by the beauty and dance of Damini, and falls head over heels in love with her. When he gets to meet her, he decides that he is going to marry her, and no one else. Shekhar brings his dad to meet Damini and her post-master dad, Chandrakant. Mr. Gupta is charmed by the simple beauty and outright honesty of Damini, and they finalize Shekhar's and Damini's marriage, which is celebrated with great pomp and ceremony. Damini re-locates to Shekhar's palatial home, where she finds that she is not as welcome as she had thought she would be, for Shekhar's mom, Sumitra, had wanted her son to marry the daughter of wealthy Mr. Bajaj. Then one day, Damini witnesses Shekhar's younger brother, Rakesh, molesting the maid-servant, and rushes to inform Shekhar about this. Shekhar rushes over to prevent the sexual assault from taking place, but is too late. Thus Rakesh and three of his friends are able to abscond with the body of the servant, who had fainted. Then the Gupta family conspire to cover-up this shameful incident. But Damini is unable to get this incident out of her mind, and finally decides to inform the police. She does so, and is instantly shunned by the Gupta family, and asked to leave the house. The police arrest Rakesh and three of his friends, and the matter is taken up in court, and Damini is asked to testify. Damini is portrayed by the Gupta family's lawyer, Indrajit Chhadha, as a mentally unstable person, with everyone from the Gupta family to her very own dad testifying to that effect. Damini is confined in a mental institution for two weeks by a judicial order. Unable to bear the mental torture in the institution, she escapes and runs into a down-and-out alcoholic lawyer by the name of Govind, who has the rape case re-opened. Then the maid-servant dies in hospital, and the police write her death off as a suicide, but Govind is able to prove otherwise. As for the final test of Damini's sanity, the only person who can restore her rightful place is Shekhar. But will Shekhar be able to stand up against his own family, and testify in favor of Damini and send his younger brother to prison?

Awards

• Filmfare Best Actress Award (Nominated) - Meenakshi Seshadri
• Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award - Sunny Deol
• Filmfare Best Director Award - Rajkumar Santoshi
• National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor - Sunny Deol

External links

• Damini at IMDb