Year 2003. Quentin Tarantino directed Kill Bill Vol.1 which had a climax scene of sword action between Uma Thurman & Lucy Liu. There is a beautiful sequence of shots wherein the two duelist are photographed in close-ups & simultaneously, a long shot where, the two actors are placed on the right corner of the screen while, a pivoted water tap moving up and down is placed on the left part of the screen. Year 1985. Ketan Mehta, India's acclaimed director and in his best cinematic achievement, had directed a similar shot wherein one of cinema's most memorable & immortal villain character played by Naseeruddin Shah counts-down from 10 to 1 alarming the lead actress to come out of her hideout simultaneously photographed with a Water Tap on the Extreme Left of the 70 mm screen, creating a magnificent scene.

And since then, there has been no such cinematography ever induced in any other Indian Movies. For those foreign audience, be noted, that this Movie is not a conventional Hindi movie loaded with songs. This Movie is a serious cinema of high degree of art.

Only 4 words can make a review of this movie: "Watch it on Priority" !

The film is set in an India before independence. "Baap Gee" (Nasseruddin Shah) is a tax collector (subedar) of a village. Sonbai (Smita Patil) is a village belle who is married to Raj Babbar. They are a childless couple.Babbar goes to the city for employment.

Shah sees Patil at the village lake and begins to lust for her. There are unseen and horrendous consequences for all the protagonists.

The movie was produced by National Film Development Corporation was it seems they did not give more than a couple of hundred bucks for the same. It looks badly dated at many places.

The side characters get meaty roles and do justice to them. Suresh Oberoi plays the village head Mukhi (short for Mukhia) who is hand in gloves with the subedar. He spends nights with another woman and neglects his wife played superbly by the excellent Deepti Naval.

Benjamin Gilani plays the village teacher who emphasizes on the education for the girl child. There is Paresh Rawal in one of his earliest roles as a village wise ass. He gets a few lines but impresses in his part.

The music is nothing to write home about. The movie is lifted out of its mediocre production values by stellar performance by Om Puri, Smita Patil and Shah. Ketan Mehta, who is both the writer and the director, does a commendable job with the obviously limited amount of funding he must have had at his disposal.

This can be seen by movie buffs who want to see great acting. It has its heart in the right place but sometimes, like in life, it is not enough.