The movie swept no less than six major National Film Awards including yet another Best Actress nod for Shabana Azmi in the title role. The film begins in the poverty stricken rural areas where corruption is rampant at every step. Rambha's husband commits a murder in defense of a fellow of his brotherhood and has to run for cover. He comes across some help in the shape of a network of people from his "mer biradiri" who help him not only to escape his sentence but also to set him up as a cog in the local political network.

Veeram, Rambha's husband has influence among the people and this influence is used by the aspiring local politicians to their own benefit. Veeram doesn't realize at first that he is merely being used by the local MP for political gain and is quite expendable when the time comes. Veeram begins to understand that he is being used as a dispensable pawn and takes a step back from the slime and filth of local politics. Unfortunately his realization comes too late and he appears to have drifted too far into the quagmire of backstabbing politics. His turn comes and Rambha is left to fend for herself and the principles that her husband stood for.

We have already seen that Rambha has a keen sense of intuition and was often the person who Veeram would turn to when he was troubled or seeking to make a decision. She is a woman of raw untapped intelligence and it doesn't take her long to learn the ropes and rules of the political game. It doesn't take a university degree for her to realize how to survive in the cutthroat, male dominated world of political filth.

The films strength lies mainly in the performances of the lead actors. Shabana Azmi sinks her teeth into as meaty a role as she has ever had. She turns in another top notch performance, the millionth of a brilliant career. It is also as juicy a feminist role to come along in ages. The roles of Veeram and especially that of the slimy politician are very well played indeed, but unfortunately there are some performances that almost derail proceedings very seriously. The film spirals horribly downwards the moment the creep playing Rambha's son arrives on the scene. The plot begins to meander and the film degenerates into the very average. We also have to endure a ghastly synchronised disco dance along the way.

The movie doesn't end nearly as impressively as it begins and another problem it suffers from is that the songs though mostly tuneful and perfectly inoffensive tend to slow the movie's narrative to a snails pace on occasions. The film hasn't the subtlety of the "art" scene and definitely has its roots in commercial "entertainment" cinema with the typical use of slow motion violence and dramatic background music as well as the liberal use of songs to spice things up. Keeping that in mind, it's a potent film dealing with some serious issues, among them honour killing, and is far more effective for being an accessible commercial product rather than the high moralistic tedium that so much artsy cinema tends to end up resembling.

Perhaps the greatest problem it suffers from is that when one reads on the cover of the dvd that the movie is the winner of 6 National Awards, naturally expectations are sky high and it doesn't quite stun as one expected. Yet, it is potent commercial cinema, in many respects far more important than art cinema because of its power to reach an audience.