Shabana Azmi Filmography

Dus Kahaniyaan

Actors: Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Arbaaz Khan, Dino Morea, Diya Mirza

Synopsis: Six directors converge to film an ensemble epic detailing the love and companionship of two friends torn apart by the cruel mechanisms of fate. When a writer makes a shocking discovery about the woman he loves most, the grip of madness takes hold of his fragile psyche. Later, when an underworld Read More

Om Shanti Om

Actors: Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Kirron Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Deepika Padukone

Synopsis: 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. Read More

Umrao Jaan

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Sunil Shetty, Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Kulbhushan Kharbanda

Synopsis: A young courtesan kidnapped from her home and sold into slavery ultimately transcends her grim fate in director J.P. Dutta's adaptation of author Mirza Haadi Ruswa's classic 1905 novel. Previously adapted for the screen to great acclaim in 1981, Ruswa's novel tells the story of a middle class girl Read More

Waterborne

Actors: Christopher Kennedy Masterson, Jake Muxworthy, Jon Gries, Ajay Naidu, Mageina Tovah

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Morning Raga

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Prakash Rao, Perizaad Zorabian, Lillete Dubey, Shaleen Sharma

Gaja Gamini

Actors: Madhuri Dixit, Shabana Azmi, Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shirodkar, Naseeruddin Shah

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Earth

Actors: Aamir Khan, Nandita Das, Rahul Khanna, Maia Sethna, Kitu Gidwani

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Godmother

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Milind Gunaji, Nirmal Pandey, Govind Namdeo, Raima Sen

Synopsis: The theme of how power can corrupt even the most well-meaning of souls is explored in this drama from India. Veeram (Milind Gunaji) and his wife Rambhi (Shabana Azmi) are forced to leave their village and move to a larger city in search of work when a drought devastates the local farmland. At his Read More

Side Streets

Actors: Valeria Golino, Shashi Kapoor, Leon, Art Malik, Shabana Azmi

Synopsis: Tony Gerber made his directorial debut with this anthology film, a comedy-drama that opens with a 1950s black-and-white newsreel focusing on the ethnic diversity of New York City. This multicultural mix is dramatized in five interlinked tales set in each of NYC's five boroughs on a hot summer day Read More

Mrityu Dand

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Madhuri Dixit, Om Puri, Ayub Khan, Shilpa Shirodkar

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Fire

Synopsis: In this India-set Canadian drama, two disparate wives related by marriage and united at first by the oppressiveness of Indian tradition that relegates them to miserable unions, find solace and love in each other's arms. The film opens as an unhappy young couple, Jatin and Sita, fumble through a Read More

In Custody

Actors: Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Sushma Seth, Neena Gupta

Synopsis: Anita Desai and Shahrukh Husain adapted Desai's novel for this comedy-drama about an Indian university teacher who encounters numerous hassles in his attempts to document the final writings of an ailing, alcoholic poet whom he idolizes. Score by Zakir Hussain and Ustad Sultan Khan. ~ Nicole Gagne Read More

The Kite

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Sayed Shafique, Om Puri, Robi Ghost, Mohan Agashe

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Son of the Pink Panther

Actors: Roberto Benigni, Herbert Lom, Claudia Cardinale, Debrah Farentino, Jennifer Edwards

Synopsis: 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 Read More

City of Joy

Actors: Patrick Swayze, Pauline Collins, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, Art Malik

Synopsis: In this drama, a wealthy American doctor learns some important lessons about life in one of the poorest cities on Earth. Max Lowe (Patrick Swayze) is a Houston surgeon who has grown weary of the bureaucracy of American medicine. When he loses a patient on the operating table, Max impulsively Read More

Dharavi

Actors: Om Puri, Shabana Azmi

Synopsis: Rajkaran is an ambitious man with no way of accomplishing his goals. He is in debt to moneylenders in a big way, and his dream of owning his own cab (he's a cabdriver) is as far away as it ever was, despite his penchant for pinching pennies. He lives with a woman who is as ambitious as he is, a Read More

Immaculate Conception

Actors: James Wilby, Melissa Leo, Shabana Azmi, Zia Mohyeddin, James Cossins

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Disha

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Nana Patekar, Raghubir Yadav, Om Puri, Nilu Phule

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Ek Din Achanak

Actors: Shabana Azmi

Synopsis: Shasanka (Sreeram Lgoo) is a retired teacher who lives with his wife and two daughters. The family is thrown into an uproar after he goes out for a walk and disappears from their lives. Each member of the family reviews her final hours and days with him to try and discover what, if anything led to Read More

Sati

Actors: Shabana Azmi

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Madame Sousatzka

Actors: Shirley MacLaine, Navin Chowdhry, Peggy Ashcroft, Twiggy, Shabana Azmi

Synopsis: 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 Read More

The Bengali Night

Actors: Hugh Grant, Supriya Pathak, Shabana Azmi, John Hurt, Soumitra Chatterjee

Synopsis: A British engineer and a young Bengali woman feel the backlash of cultural divisiveness in this uneven romantic drama. Allan (Hugh Grant) falls in love with the Gayatri (Supriya Pathak), the beautiful teenage daughter of his hostess Indira Sen (Shabana Azmi) while he recovers from an illness. When Read More

Mardon Wali Baat

Anjuman

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Farouque Shaikh, Rohini Hattangady

Synopsis: Capitalism at its most brutal is a familiar story in Central Asia, and in this story, set in the lovely but decaying Indian city of Lucknow, it takes the form of wholesalers paying the women who weave a colorful folk design in fabric less than it costs for them to support themselves. In this Read More

Pestonjee

Actors: Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Essence

Actors: Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, Neena Gupta, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mohan Agashe

Synopsis: Ramulu (Om Puri) is a master weaver whose excellence is noticed by a female government official, and his work is selected to represent his country in an exhibition in Paris. Unfortunately, the selection brings about worker discord and jealousy. Ramulu alienates his daughter by using the fine silk Read More

Genesis

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, M.K. Raina

Synopsis: This is a simple, straightforward tale about the rise and fall of human civilization that focuses solely on four characters: a farmer (Naseeruddin Shah), a weaver (Om Puri), a trader (M.K. Raina), and a woman (Shabana Azmi). At the beginning of the story, the workers in a decaying village are Read More

Samay Ki Dhara

Actors: Shatrughan Sinha, Shabana Azmi

Khamosh

Khandar

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Gita Sen, Pankaj Kapoor

Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of a crumbling, historical villa on an ancient feudal holding now going to seed, director Mrinal Sen develops a portrait of a crumbling, deteriorating woman -- old, blind, and senile -- and her daughter who is wasting away, hopelessly waiting for her lover like Estragon Read More

Paar

Actors: Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Om Puri

Synopsis: When an Untouchable wins the elections for mayor in his small village in northeastern India, deadly rioting forces an impoverished couple to escape to Calcutta where they can hopefully find work. Instead, they end up sleeping on the streets until they have a chance at earning a little income -- a Read More

Masoom

Synopsis: This Hindi social drama stars Naseerudin Shah as a family man whose everyday domestic life is turned upside down when he discovers that he has an illegitimate child (Jugal Hansraj) from an affair with a past mistress. When the boy's mother dies, he is sent to live with his father. The child's Read More

Mandi

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Saeed Jaffrey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda

Synopsis: With songs and musical numbers that are woven through the storyline, this unevenly-paced drama is about a brothel that has been an institution in a small town for a very long time. The women entertain the local clients with suggestive songs and dances and are not the type of prostitutes that ply Read More

Arth

Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Asta Hai

Actors: Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil

Synopsis: A young auto mechanic named Albert Pinto (Naseeruddin Shah), enjoys an insulated life of semi-privilege in India where his wealthy customers will sometimes let him use their luxury cars, and his charming girlfriend stays in her desired place. All this changes as Pinto is suddenly face-to-face with Read More

Ek Hi Bhool

Ek Baar Kaho

Sparsh

Actors: Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi

Synopsis: When the blind principal of a school for blind adolescents meets up with a young widow, there is an attraction that leads to an affair. Both this intense relationship, and a secondary relationship between a young blind boy and his seeing friend explore the world of the sightless and its context Read More

Junoon

Actors: Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Jennifer Kendal, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Dipti Naval, Nafisa Ali

Synopsis: During one of the many violent uprisings against the English colonial overlords in India, a church filled with people is massacred. The only people to survive are three generations of women in one family, hidden by a friendly Indian. They are then kidnapped by a Muslim (Sashi Kapoor), who wants to Read More

Amar Akbar Anthony

Synopsis: Released after censorship restrictions were lifted by a more liberal Indian government, Amar Akbar Anthony indulged audiences in a story with loose morals and visual excitement. The Chinese box of a narrative is essentially a comedy of errors concerning three brothers, Amar, Akbar, and Anthony. Read More

The Chess Players

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Amjad Khan, Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi

Synopsis: Based on a story by Munshi Premchand, and much influenced by Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1925 film Chess Fever, this satirical film by noted Indian director Satyajit Ray is set in colonial India in 1856. The British Resident of the East India Company (Richard Attenborough) has observed that the monarch of Read More

Swami

Actors: Shabana Azmi, Girish Karnad

Synopsis: After an arranged marriage, the bride goes to live with her husband's family. She is a girl with some modern ideas, and resents the whole thing. Before too long, she and her husband's stepmother begin quarrelling. The battles for dominance that go on in the women's quarters of a large Indian Read More

Nishant

Actors: Girish Karnad, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Amrish Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda

Synopsis: In India in 1945, at the time of independence, there were many isolated semi-autonomous states, which had their own laws. In this movie, a man whose wife is abducted by the rulers of such a region seeks to have the men prosecuted for their crime, but no one will help him. Meanwhile, the wife Read More

Ankur

Synopsis: When a married man seduces his serving girl, it's just for fun. As a spoiled and raw young man of India's upper classes, he is unprepared to face reality when the girl shows up pregnant, and he virtually has a breakdown. The girl, however, is made of tougher stuff, as is her husband; he has long Read More

Khel Khilari Ka