Mandi (1983)
Director: Shyam Benegal · Writers: Shyam Benegal, Shama Zaidi, Satyadev Dubey
The denizens of a brothel deal with internal drama, as well as greedy land developers and an anti-prostitution politician who are pressuring them to leave town.
Where to watch
Brew
Director
Shyam Benegal
Cast
Shabana Azmi
Rukmini Bai 
Smita Patil
Zeenat 
Naseeruddin Shah
Tungrus 
Amrish Puri
Darvish 
Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Mr. Gupta 
Saeed Jaffrey
Major Agarwal 
Sreela Majumdar
Phoolmani 
Neena Gupta
Basanti 
Gita Siddharth
Shantidevi 
Aditya Bhattacharya
Sushil Agarwal 
Om Puri
Ram Gopal 
Harish Patel
Policeman User Reviews (1)
Based on a short story from an Urdu short story called "Anandi" by Ghulam Abbas, Mandi is presented as a black comedy about a group of prostitutes, led by Rukminibai, who struggle against the 'morality-police' forces in the city that want them thrown out, and their brothel destroyed to make room for 'development'. This film is among Shyam Benegal's best work. Benegal assembles some highly professional actors, with Shabana Azmi excelling as the crude, selfish, yet likable "Bai" (madam) of the "Khota" (brothel), Smita Patil as the beautiful, gentle-looking, but rebellious Zeenat. The movie rests on their strong performances, and also on Naseeruddin Shah's, whose character reveals a lot about the 'khota' and about the relationships between its inhabitants. The relationship between Rukminibai and Tungrus is deceptively simple, for underneath all their interactions there is a deep concern …
