Damini (transl. Lightning) is a 1993 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed and co-written by Rajkumar Santoshi. It stars Meenakshi Seshadri in the title role with Rishi KapoorSunny Deol, and Amrish Puri. Aamir Khan makes a special appearance.[2] The story revolves around Damini who witnesses her housemaid being raped by her brother-in-law and his friends. Despite facing many obstacles, she strives to get justice for her with the help of her husband and Govind, a lawyer. The film is considered to be one of the best woman-centric films ever made in Bollywood.[3]
Besides being critically acclaimed, the film also became the sixth highest grossing of the year and was declared a "hit" at Box Office India.[1]Damini – Lightning marked Meenakshi Seshadri's career best performance that was highly acclaimed.[4]
It is considered a cult feminist film and is still regarded as an all-time classic female oriented film and important for portraying women empowerment in cinema[5] The pathbreaking film was praised for breaking social taboos and handling the subject of rape with sensitivity; a rarity in Bollywood at the time.[6]
The movie is highly memorable for Sunny Deol's portrayal of an alcoholic lawyer and the role gained him a Filmfare as well as National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for 1993. It strengthened his Bollywood he-man image. His dialogues in the film "Tarikh Pe Tarikh" ("date after date") and "Dhai Kilo ka Haath" ('Two-and-a-half kilogram hand') became iconic and a pop-culture reference.[7] The film was a milestone in the careers of Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Sheshadri and Amrish Puri, who gave some great hits like Ghayal (1990) and Ghatak: Lethal (1996) together.[8]Aamir Khan acted in a special appearance in the stage show dance song. He also promotes his upcoming film Andaz Apna Apna (1994) which was also directed by Rajkumar Santoshi.
Shekhar Gupta (Rishi Kapoor), is the elder son of a rich businessman and industrialist, Kedarnath Gupta. He falls in love at first sight with Damini (Meenakshi Seshadri) after seeing her dance performance at a charity event. Damini belongs to a poor family but tends to raise voice against injustice in society. Her sister runs away from house with a drunkard and mimcry artist Birju Moghe to Mumbai, in a bid to relive her father from the onus of arranging dowry for her wedding.
Damini & Shekhar get married and Damini moves into his luxurious bungalow. However, this irks Tolu Bajaj, the business partner of the Guptas who was planning to marry her daughter to Shekhar. He breaks the partnership with Guptas and begins to conspire against Guptas. Damini befriends Urmi, a young maid-servant who was brought up in the house of Guptas. On Holi day, she witnesses Shekhar's younger brother, Rakesh (Ashwin Kaushal), and his friends, gangraping the maid-servant Urmi (Prajakta) and rushes to tell Shekhar. Shekhar rushes over to prevent sexual assault but is too late. Later, Rakesh and his friends throw Urmi roadside. The Gupta family conspires to cover up this shameful incident. But Damini decides to inform the police. At this Shekhar tries to convince her to not to speak anything in front of police. When police visits her home, and ask Damini about the incident she denies to have any knowledge about it. Later it is revealed it is Tolu Bajaj, who has bribed police department to escalate the matter in order to tarnish the image of Guptas.
The matter is taken up in court and Damini is asked to testify. Guptas then hire Indrajit Chaddha as the matter get worsen. At the first hearing, Damini is portrayed as a mentally unstable person by Chaddha, and confined in a mental institution for two weeks by judicial order. At this Shekhar gets upset with his family while the Guptas and Bajaj reunite. At the mental institution, Damini overhears Rakesh asking the Doctor to deliberately make Damini mental or even kill her showing off as suicide. Damini escapes and runs into a down-and-out alcoholic lawyer, Govind (Sunny Deol), who saves her from the culprits chasing her. Govind decides to help her. He gets the rape case re-opened. Following this Guptas get Urmi murdered in hospital and try to showcase it as a suicide.
At the second hearing, Govind cross-questions the driver of Guptas, and is successful in proving that even driver knew about the incident. He also proves that the suicide note found by police near Urmi's body was fake. Seeing situation going out hand, Chaddha fakes a chest pain and asks court to give another date of hearing. Later that night, Chaddha meets Govind and asks him to settle out of court for some money, however an angry Govind challenges him to face him in courtroom . Following this Guptas send goons to kill Govind however in a fight-off he defeats them. Damini goes out in public and gets support. Drivers, servant and other relatives being fed up of the incident leave the House of Guptas.
On the day of third hearing, Guptas and Bajaj plan to kill Damini. This is overheard by Shekhar and vows to stand with Damini come what may. Later he is attacked by goons on road who kidnap him. This is seen by Mamaji, who go behind him in order to free him. Meanwhile, Bajaj along with his men tries to kill Damini going to court. However, they themselves get attacked by local people who shoo them off. At the court, Chaddha requests for another date since he believes that Damini and Shekhar is absconding. But sometime later Damini and Shekhar arrive, and both testify and bear witness to the incident. Court helds Rakesh and his friends as accused and also helds Guptas along with Bajaj and Chaddha as accused for covering up the same.
Madhav Moghe as Birju, Mimicry artist, Damini's brother-in-law.
Ashwin Kaushal as Rakesh Gupta, Damini's brother-in-law & Shekhar's brother.
Prajakta Kulkarni as Urmi
Suhas Bhalekar as Urmi's grandfather (guest appearance)
Aamir Khan as himself Dancer in a song with Damini. (special appearance)
Production
Rishi Kapoor suggested Santoshi to cast Sridevi in the title role whereas Sunny Deol thought that she would be a misfit for the role.[9] Deol suggested to cast Dimple Kapadia instead. Kapoor on being informed that Deol suggested Dimple Kapadia to portray the role, at once declared that he would leave the project if she was cast.[9] The role was then offered to Madhuri Dixit who turned it down because of her date issue.[10]Meenakshi Seshadri was then finalized to portray the role.
The soundtrack of this movie was composed by the music duo Nadeem Shravan and the lyrics were penned by Sameer . The soundtrack was released in 1993 on Audio Cassette and Audio CD in RPG-HMV Music Made in India and EMI Made in England, Which consist 5 Songs. The full album is recorded by Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik, and Sadhna Sargam
The lyrics were written The song "Gawah Hain Chand Taare Gawah Hai" is based on the Swahili folk song "Malaika".[11]
Pranay Bhagat wrote: "If there is one modern film which signifies the importance of truth it has to be Damini. Though the movie is more remembered for the dialogues of Sunny Deol and his confrontational scenes with Amrish Puri, I feel the movie should also be appreciated for a tight bound script, the wonderfully directed courtroom scenes, good background music as well as a career best performance from Meenakshi."[12]
Vineeta Sinha in her review praises the film for its tight bound script, courtroom scenes, music and above all the career best performance of Meenakshi.[13]
Sulagana Biswas of Telegraph India; states the film despite being dated is still "eminently watchable" and also praising Sheshadri's portrayal of the title role states "the film still holds its own due to the earnestness of Meenakshi Sheshadri's performance".[14] Simantini Dey writing for News18 hails the film as a "cult feminist film" and states "Damini -- released in 1993 -- is perhaps one of the most misunderstood films in Bollywood history. Despite receiving instant critical acclaim upon its release and having a successful run at the box-office, we as an audience have celebrated this film for all the wrong reasons. Yes, Sunny Deol's punchy dialogues like, "Tarikh par Tarikh milti rahi hai, lekin insaaf nahi mila, my lord!" deserved all the claps and whistles it received, and the theatrics of the courtroom drama, wherein two lawyers Govind (Sunny Deol) and Mr. Indrajit Chaddha (Amrish Puri) exchange angry words and stares indeed make for a great Bollywood entertainer. But the real reason why Damini was such an iconic film and deserves a cult status is the protagonist of the film --- Damini (played brilliantly by Meenakshi Seshadri). Till date, Bollywood has not given us such a strong and beautifully written female character as Damini, who not only has a mind of her own, but also a conscience. Long before films like Raazi and Pink were made in Bollywood, Rajkumar Santoshi's Damini gave us a HIT feminist movie with a female central character, who fights against all odds to bring justice to another woman."[15]
Damini – Lightning was remade into Odia as Nari Nuhne Tu Narayani, starring Sidhanta Mohapatra and Rachana Banarjee, in Tamil as Priyanka, starring Revathi as the title character, in Telugu as Urmila, starring Suman and Malashri, and in Bangladesh as Sottyer Bijoy, starring Manna and Moushumi, directed by F.I. Manik. Box Office India declared the film a super hit. The rights of the movie were owned by Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment,[16] which were transferred to Sunny Deol who plans to remake the film with his son Karan Deol.[17]
