Shabana Azmi Movies

Love and dreams follow two starry-eyed actors across three decades and two incarnations in this splashy Hindi musical. It's the early Seventies, and Om Prakash Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a young would-be actor who has been playing bit parts in Bollywood musicals while looking for his big break. Om's ambition is to become a film star and win the heart of beautiful screen siren Shantipriya (Deepika Padukone), and his pal Pappu (Shreyas Talpade) and his mother Bela (Kirron Kher) both encourage him not to give up on his dreams. One day, Om meets Shantipriya on a movie set, and he feels as if destiny is finally smiling on him, but when he overhears her having an argument with studio chief Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal), Om senses things are not as they should be. Before Om can decide what to make of his misgivings, the studio burns to the ground, claiming the lives of Om and Shantipriya. Thirty years later, a bit of Om's spirit seems to live on in Om Kapoor (also played by Shah Rukh Khan) a popular film actor with a large ego and a fear of flame who was born the day the old studio burned down. Despite his fame, Om is lonely, at least until he meets Sandhya (also played by Deepika Padukone), a shy but eager would-be actress looking for her chance to become a star. Om Shanti Om was directed and co-written by Farah Khan, who was a top choreographer in the Indian film industry before moving up to the director's chair, and features guest spots from a number of Bollywood's greatest stars, a few appearing in the form of digital recreations taken from films of the Seventies. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A handful of Indian-Americans vie for overnight stardom in a competition for amateur singers in this mockumentary comedy. The Loins of Punjab meat company is sponsoring a televised contest in which fans of Indian pop music will be given the chance to put their talents to the test, with the grand prize winner claiming a 25,000-dollar purse. A diverse array of aspiring singing stars arrive in New Jersey for the competition; some are Indian émigrés who've made their way to America, others were born in the United States to South Asian parents, and one is a Jewish guy, Josh Cohen (Michael Raimondi), who picked up his fondness for Indian music from his girlfriend, Opama (Ayesha Dharker). Other contestants include Sania Rahman (Seema Rahmani), a would-be actress often accused of not being Indian enough by casting agents; financial advisor Vikram Tejwani (Manish Acharya), who is out of work now that his job has been outsourced to India; a militant gay rap artist who calls himself The Turbanotorious BDG (Ajay Naidu); Preeti Patel (Ishitta Sharma), a teenage girl who just wants to be noticed by her large and growing family; and Rrita Kapoor (Shabana Azmi), a wealthy and unscrupulous housewife who isn't above bribing the judges with money or sex. Loins of Punjab Presents was the first feature film from writer and director Manish Acharya, who also plays Vikram. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A biological act of terror has been unleashed upon Los Angeles, and as the denizens of the West Coast metropolis are bombarded with news stories documenting the contamination of the city's water supply, turmoil grips the panic-stricken streets in director Ben Rekhi's dark speculative drama. With resources quickly shrinking and the stress of the terrified population reaching a breaking point, the face of humanity turns foul as civility takes a back seat to survival instinct and the only thing that counts is getting out alive. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This ambitious and symbolic musical drama follows the eternal spirit of women as they inspire and confound men throughout the ages. As Science (Ashish Vidyarthi) and Art (Mohan Aghashe) debate who truly holds sway over the Universe, they ponder the story of Gaja Gamini (Madhuri Dixit), a mysterious and beautiful woman who, in her various incarnations over the ages, poses for Leonardo Da Vinci (Naseeruddin Shah) as he paints the Mona Lisa, acts as muse for Kalidas as he writes his poem Shakuntala, inspires a group of women to speak against their role as second-class citizens, and becomes a subject for a modern-day photographer (Shah Rukh). Gaja Gamini was the first feature film directed by well-respected Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain, who also served as screenwriter, editor, and production designer for the project -- all at the age of 85! ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Deepa Mehta directed this Indian-Canadian romantic drama, the second part of a trilogy. Based on Bapsi Sidhwa's autobiography, Cracking India, the story is set in 1947 in Lahore, where Hindu, Sikh, Parsee, and Muslim share a peaceful co-existence. Events are seen from the point of view of eight-year-old Lenny (Maia Sethna), a girl from an affluent Parsee family. Lenny's nanny, Shantya (Nandita Das), is involved with the Muslim Masseur (Rahul Khanna). When a train of Muslims arrives at the local depot and all the passengers are found murdered, the various sects turn against each other, and the city is soon aflame. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In the north Indian state of Bihar, Ketki (Madhuri Dixit) marries weak Vinay (Ayub Khan), who is exploited by hard-nosed businessman Tirpat (Mohan Joshi). Ketki then organizes local women against Tirpat & Co. Her group includes her sister-in-law Chandravati (Shabana Azmi), who had a run-in with dangerous priest Abhay (Mohan Agashe). Eventually, Abhay orders a religious death sentence for the sisters. Shown at the 1997 London Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This Indian drama provides a sympathetic view of the daily existence of some of India's poorest people. The film is set within a small, illegal shanty town surrounding a railroad station. The people, who live without water and electricity, eke out their living by stealing food from the passing trains.This pilfering is ignored by the sympathetic station master. The story focuses upon Somra, the adolescent son of Jitni, a beautiful unwed mother who works in town as a housekeeper. Jitni's lover is Mathura, one of the head thieves. Mathura and his gang of children, and it is the children who leap onto the moving trains to toss out food and items to waiting adults, meet opposition with the new commissioner of the Railway Protection Force. Somra loves to fly kites. Mathura, because he believes Somra hates him for loving Somra's mother, gets the boy deeply involved in his gang and then sacrifices him to the railroad guards. The outcome of the film is surprising. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After the death of Peter Sellers in 1980, writer/director Blake Edwards assembled a new "Pink Panther" film from outtakes of Sellers as Inspector Clouseau from previous movies in the series (the result was called The Trail of the Pink Panther) and later made two attempts to revive the series with another actor. In this case, Edwards cast Roberto Benigni as Jacques Gambrelli, a hopelessly inept French policeman who turns out the be the illegitimate son of Inspector Clouseau. Gambrelli becomes involved with the investigation of a kidnapping involving the beautiful Princess Yasmin (Debrah Farentino) literally by accident, when he crashes into a car driven by Police Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom). Gambrelli soon becomes smitten with Yasmin, while the investigation suggests that the kidnapping was set up by her mother, the Queen (Shabana Azmi), and her lover, General Jaffar (Aharon Ipale). Claudia Cardinale who played a different character in the original Pink Panther returns, while Burt Kwouk returns as the violent Korean manservant Cato. Roberto Benigni's Gambrelli proved no more successful at the box office than Ted Wass's Clouseau-like Clifton Sleigh in The Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), though after his multiple-Oscar winning success with 1998's La Vita e Bella, Roberto's probably gotten over it. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Religious and personal tensions escalate steadily in this drama, and nearly everyone in it has some sort of extra-sensitive "toes" that get stepped on by others. James Wilby would seem to have a relatively non-controversial job, for a foreigner, since he is a wildlife conservationist, and foreigners are always going on about the environment. Pakistan is, however, a pretty strange place for his Jewish wife Hannah, the daughter of an American senator. The couple are almost deranged with a desire to have a child together, and when they hear about a local shrine which is said to give the blessing of fertility, they think that it sounds harmless enough and go out to see it. In the rest of the world, eunuches are a thing of the past, but in Pakistan and India, they actually have a culture of their own; ironically enough, they run the fertility shrine. When Wilby and Hannah visit the place, they are rendered unconscious with a drugged drink, and a local boy is called in to inseminate Hannah, who does in fact become pregnant. The birth of the child, however, seems to be the trigger for a lot of strange goings-on, beginning with Hannah's conversion to Islam, which strains her marriage nearly to the breaking point. Also, Hannah has discovered that Alistair has been carrying on with a family friend, and in addition, the eunuches seem to be excessively interested in the child she has by now given birth to. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The lure of the big city is something that country dwellers around the world experience. In every case, the particulars are different. In this drama, two best friends leave their Indian village and travel to Bombay to try and get work. Though the filmmaker doesn't say this, they are lucky. They find a room to share (with lots of other men) and don't have to live on the sidewalks and streets like so many others do. They even find work of a sort, even though it isn't strictly legal. However, beyond that, things aren't very rosy. The married friend is able to invite his wife in from the country for a conjugal visit when a friend loans him the use of his apartment, but that's only one night. Meanwhile, one of their friends who stayed at the village has been putting all his energy into digging a well to get water. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The young Brahmin girl in this story has a disastrous horoscope. In an Indian village in 1828, this can be a real handicap. The fact that she is mute only compounds her difficulties. Her horoscope predicts that she will become a widow at an early age. If this turns out as predicted, in addition to being bad luck for her prospective husbands, it is bad luck for her, as she will, according to the customs of the time, have to commit suttee (Sati, the title of this film). That means she will have to be burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre. To avoid this fate, her family has hit upon the appealing strategem of having her marry a banyan tree. This, apparently, is perfectly legal. Alas, fate is stronger than strategy in this case, and things do not turn out well. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Shirley MacLaine is Madame Sousatzka, an aging piano instructor of Russian extraction. Entrenched in a dilapidated London rooming house, the Madame gives lessons only to the most gifted. She does not stop at mere instruction; Sousatzka insists that her pupils conduct their lives in the same genteel, cultured manner in which she was raised. Her prize student at the moment is an East Indian teenage boy (Navin Chowdhry), who forms a strong and loving bond with the old woman. Director John Schlesinger occasionally cuts away from the Madame and her pupil to allow comic space for the other tenants in Ashcroft's building, including an erstwhile songstress (Twiggy) and a gay osteopath (Geoffrey Baydlon). Navim Chowdhry's mother is played by Shabana Azmi, an important star of Indian films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Piroji fails to act on an offer of marriage, his best friend Pesi marries the beautiful but masochistic Jerro in this drama with touches of gentle comedy. Piroji first meets the troubled bride at the wedding and falls in love. He vows to become her protector and turns his back on Pesi when he gets involved with another woman. The film gives an accurate glimpse into the Parsi community of Bombay in the 1930s. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide