Damini – Lightning

Damini
DVD cover
Directed by	Rajkumar Santoshi
Produced by	Aly Morani Karim Morani Bunty Soorma
Written by	Rajkumar Santoshi Sutanu Gupta(Story)
Starring	Meenakshi Sheshadri Sunny Deol Rishi Kapoor Vijayendra Ghatge Rohini Hattangadi Kulbhushan Kharbanda Amrish Puri Paresh Rawal Tinu Anand
Music by	Nadeem-Shravan Sameer (Lyrics)
Cinematography	Ishwar Bidri
Edited by	V. N. Mayekar[1]
Release dates	30 April 1993
Running time	176 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Box office	₹117.5 million (US$1.7 million)[2]

Damini – Lightning is a 1993 Hindi film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi starring Meenakshi Sheshadri in the title role alongside Sunny Deol, Rishi Kapoor, Amrish Puri, Tinu Anand, Paresh Rawal in pivotal role and Aamir Khan as special appearance. The story is of how a woman fights against society for justice. The film is considered to be the best woman centric film ever made in Bollywood along with Mother India.

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 mostly remembered for Meenakshi Sheshadri's career best performance, the role that became her identity and it 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. It strengthened his Bollywood he-man image. The film was a milestone in the careers of Meenakshi Sheshadri, Sunny Deol and Amrish Puri who gave some great hits like Ghayal and Ghatak: Lethal together. Aamir Khan acted in a special appearance in the stage show dance song. Damini – Lightning was remade into Oriya as Nari Nuhne Tu Narayani starring Sidhanta Mohapatra and Rachana Banarjee. It was remade into Tamil as Priyanka starring Revathi as the titular character. Box Office India declared the film Hit.

Synopsis

Shekhar Gupta (Rishi Kapoor), a rich businessman, falls in love at first sight with Damini (Meenakshi Sheshadri). They get married and Damini moves into his palatial bungalow. One day, she witnesses Shekhar's younger brother, Rakesh, raping the maid-servant and rushes to tell Shekhar. Shekhar rushes over to prevent the sexual assault but is too late. The Gupta family conspire to cover up this shameful incident. But Damini decides to inform the police. The matter is taken up in court and Damini is asked to testify. Damini is portrayed as a mentally unstable person and 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, 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. It is up to Damini, Govind and Shekhar to provide justice to the victimised girl.

Cast

• Sunny Deol as Govind
• Meenakshi Sheshadri as Damini Gupta
• Aamir Khan as Dancer in a song with Meenakshi
• Rishi Kapoor as Shekhar Gupta
• Amrish Puri as Barrister Indrajit Chaddha
• Anjan Srivastav as Chandrakant (Damini's father)
• Paresh Rawal as Tolu Bajaj
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Mr. Gupta
• Rohini Hattangadi as Mrs. Gupta
• Vishwajeet Pradhan as the Police Commissioner
• Ashwin Kaushal as Shekhar's Brother
• Vijayendra Ghatge as Inspector Kadam
• K.K. Raina as Shekhar's friend
• Suhas Bhalekar in a Guest Appearance as Urmi's Grandfather
• Prajakta as Urmi
• Sulabha Arya as Mami Tinu Anand's wife
• Tinnu Anand as Shekhar's uncle^[3]

Remakes

Soundtrack

The Soundtrack Of The Movie Is Composed By The Music Duo Nadeem Shravan.The Song Lyrics Planned By Sameer.

Awards

• Winner - National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor – Sunny Deol

Filmfare Award

• Winner - Best Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
• Winner - Best Supporting Actor : Sunny Deol^[4]
• Nominated - Best Actress :Meenakshi Seshadri

References

External links

• Damini – Lightning at the Internet Movie Database