Damini

Damini
DVD cover
Directed by	Rajkumar Santoshi
Produced by	Aly Morani Karim Morani Bunty Soorma
Written by	Dilip Shukla
Starring	Rishi Kapoor Sunny Deol Meenakshi Sheshadri Vijayendra Ghatge Rohini Hattangadi Kulbhushan Kharbanda Amrish Puri Paresh Rawal Tinu Anand
Music by	Nadeem-Shravan Sameer (Lyrics)
Cinematography	Ishwar Bidri
Editing by	V. N. Mayekar [1]
Release date(s)	30 April 1993
Running time	176 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Box office	Rs. 7,50,00,000[2]

Damini - Lightning 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 society for justice.

Besides being critically acclaimed, the film became the sixth highest grossing of the year and was declared a 'hit' at the Indian box office.^[2] Damini - Lightning is also memorable for Sunny Deol's role as an advocate and gained him a Filmfare as well as National Film Award for Best Supporting actor for 1993. The movie strengthened his Bollywood he-man image. 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 acted in a very special appearance in the stage show dance song. Damini - Lightning was remade into Oriya as Nari Nuhne Tu Narayani starring Sidharth and Rachana. It was remade into Tamil as Priyanka starring Revathi as the titular character.

Synopsis

The movie begins with a rich businessman Shekhar Gupta (Rishi Kapoor) going in for a stage dance show with his friend where he falls in love at first sight with the actress of the show Damini (Meenakshi Sheshadri). When Shekhar (the son of wealthy Mr. Gupta) 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 postmaster 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: Shekhar's mom, Sumitra, had wanted her son to marry the daughter of wealthy Mr. Bajaj.

One day, Damini witnesses Shekhar's younger brother, Rakesh, molesting the maid-servant and rushes to tell Shekhar. Shekhar rushes over to prevent the sexual assault but is too late. Thus Rakesh and three of his friends are able to abscond with the body of the servant, who had fainted. 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, is instantly shunned by the Gupta family, and is asked to leave the house. The police arrest Rakesh and three of his friends. 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. She 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 (Sunny Deol), who has the rape case re-opened. 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 when the Gupta family comes to know of their son's intentions to testify against them, they decide to have him killed to save their family's honour. They have him assaulted by henchmen of Mr. Bajaj but Shekhar escapes injured and arrives in court just on the nick of time to give his testimony. His brother and his friends are convicted and Damini is declared the heroine of justice.

Cast

• Meenakshi Sheshadri - Damini Gupta
• Rishi Kapoor - Shekhar Gupta
• Sunny Deol - Govind
• Amrish Puri - Barrister Indrajit Chaddha
• Anjan Srivastav - Chandrakant (Damini's dad)
• Paresh Rawal - Mr. Bajaj
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda- Mr. Gupta
• Rohini Hattangadi - Mrs. Gupta
• Vijayendra Ghatge - Inspector Kadam
• K.K. Raina - Shekhar's friend
• Tinnu Anand - Shekhar's uncle^[3]

Soundtrack

#	Title	Singer(s)
1	"Jab Se Tumhein Dekha Sanam"	Kumar Sanu, Sadhana Sargam
2	"Gawah Hain Chand Taare"	Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik
3	"Bin Sajan Jhoola Jhoolu"	Kumar Sanu, Sadhana Sargam
4	"Sacha Aashiq Hai To"	Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik
5	"Kaga To Udd Gaya"	Alka Yagnik

Famous quotations

The dialogues of the movie were an instantaneous hit with Sunny Deol and are renowned. Some of them were:

• "Yeh Dhai kilo ka haath jab kisi pe padta hai na aadmi uthta nai uth jata hai"
• "Tum kabhi chidiyaghar gaye ho? pinjare mein bandh sher pe bache bhi mungfalian faenkte hai... ...khuli zameen par sher ka saamna karoge to mard hone ki galatfahmi door ho jayegi"
• "tareeqh per thareeqh .. tareeqh per tareeqh .. tareeqh per tareeqh .. milti hai to sirf tareeqh"
• "Agar tumne court mein koi bhi battameezi ki, toh wohi maaroonga. Judge order order karta rahega aur tu pitata rahega"

Awards

• National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor - Sunny Deol
• Filmfare Award
  • Best Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
  • Best Supporting Actor : Sunny Deol ^[4]
  • Best Actress (Nominated):Meenakshi Seshadri

References

1. ^ Damini Movietalkies.com.
2. ^ ^{a b} Box Office 1993 Box Office India.
3. ^ Damini Bollywood Hungama.
4. ^ Awards IMDB.

External links

• Damini – Lightning at the Internet Movie Database