MAIN ZINDA HOON
1988
 
CAST
Deepti Naval, Pankaj Kapoor, Alok Nath, Sushmita Mukherjee, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajendra Gupta, Sarita Joshi, Deepak Kazir and Suresh Bhagwat & Pankaj

CREDITS
Producer – NFDC
Director – Sudhir Mishra
Camera - Rajesh Joshi
Screenplay - Sudhir Mishra
Story - Sudhir Mishra, Amit Khanna, Farhad Ostavari
Dialogue - Amrik Gill
Music Director - Sharang Dev
Lyrics - Javed Akhtar
Sound - Ajay Munjal
Editor - Renu Saluja

STORY
Directed by Sudhir Mishra the film is a powerful commentary on the plight of women in India.

Beena an orphan from a small town comes to Bombay for the first time as a starry eyed, tentative bride. She brings with her memories of a mostly unhappy past, an orphan’s life with an uncle and aunt. The only remembrances being, those with her father, whom she lost when she was barely twelve.

In Bombay she is suddenly confronted with the fact that her husband did not want the marriage at all. He on his part had his dreams – dreams that have been crushed by the daily grind of existence, of bearing the responsibility of providing for his family. One day Beena wakes up to find him gone. A search for him begins in which a bewildered Beena finds herself taking part. Gradually it is assumed that her husband is dead. The family begins to crack under the strain of economic pressure and blame Beena for his disappearance. Desperately, she asks her uncle and aunt to take her back but they refuse. Not knowing what to do, she takes up a job and slowly replaces the husband in the house as a provider. The attitude of the family towards her now changes dramatically, till she gets involved with a colleague.

The family reacts, but when they realize that they may loose the golden goose, they accept her new found relationship. Desperate to keep her, they even agree to her marriage with her lover on the condition that they live with the family. Life seems to hold a new promise, till suddenly one day, the husband returns home, and a dramatic shift once again occurs in Beena’s life. The family’s attitude towards her completely changes. Initially she was a saint and a provider but now she becomes the classical whore. Threatened and bullied by her father-in-law, brow-beaten and questioned by her husband, she is forcibly locked up inside a room, and one day the thread between her and reality snaps.

She withdraws into a total silence. Committed to an asylum, we see her alone, non communicative. From this point onward, the film is tacked in a stylized manner, as we see her slowly emerging from withdrawal to peace.