Mahesh Elkunchwar

Dr. Bhaskar, a Magsaysay Award winner, returns to his native village after forty years accompanied by his doctor son and American daughter-in-law. While watching the ruins of his ancestral manor, Dr. Bhaskar remembers the critical year before his joining medical college. It was not his Gandhian freedom fighter father nor his feudal uncle or romantic elder brother, but his mother who motivated him to be a doctor for the service of the poor. She believed that is the only way to appease the Guardian Spirit of the house. Bhaskar is indebted to another woman, Krishnatai, his brother's lower caste lover, who was enlightened enough to support his mother's dream. Bhaskar is now back home to fulfill the wish of his mother

In the 1980s, a lawyer defends a tribal man who is under arrest for killing his own wife. As he proceeds with the case, he learns about the harsh life of scheduled tribes in India.

In a typical college in a typical Indian city, the hostel boys Madan Sharma (Aamir Khan) and his friend are a rowdy lot. The teaching staff suffer from the common apathy of most teachers in similar colleges. The administration has the usual problems, with ill-paid employees periodically going on strike. On the whole, the college is a very normal place. But on this particular day, when Madan and his friends rise from their slumber, some with the customary hangover, they are not so perturbed to find no water in the taps again, as when they hear that it is not going to be a holiday after all. Instead there will be a lecture in the auditorium by the Chairman of the Board (Dr. Shriram Lagoo), on the day of the festival of fire, Holi, and the boys decide not to attend the classes. The hostel superintendent Professor Singh (Naseeruddin Shah), the only lecturer with some human links with the students...

Celebrities arrive at an extravagant party in Bombay to honour Divakar for his contributions to arts and cinema. However, gossip, uninvited guests and a dead body show up to mar the celebrations.