Plot

Anju Rai lives a wealthy lifestyle with her widowed dad in a palatial house. She is now of marriageable age, and her dad has arranged her marriage with Advocate Amarnath. Both Anju and Amarnath meet and fall in love with each other. Shortly before their formal engagement, Anju notices a change in Amarnath - as he appears to be drifting further from her. Then he decides to demolish his house and re-built it, and also refuses to go near any Mandir - either alone or in Anju's company. When part of the house collapses, he is injured, but recuperates quickly. It is then the town is set afire with rumors that Amarnath may have sexually molested a village belle named Sonia, who sells milk, lives a poor lifestyle with her widowed dad, cruel step-mother, and is to be married to the village goon, Shankar. Watch what happens when Shankar gets killed, and Sonia is arrested for killing him.—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

A delicately nuanced psychological drama, exploring a 3-way relationship between the main characters and the crisis of conscience that rocks it. A prosperous, well-respected lawyer, in love with and engaged to an educated, socially-conscious young woman, succumbs to a weak moment and rapes a poor local village milkmaid. The rest of the story deals with the aftermath of this tragic event, with all the inevitable undercurrents of guilt, penitence and pervasive heartbreak that stem from it.—Hrishi Dixit <hud1@cornell.edu>