Drohkaal

Drohkaal (English: Times of Treason) is a 1994 Indian crime drama film directed and produced by Govind Nihalani which deals with India's fight against terrorism. The film examines the mental and psychological trauma that honest police officers go through in their fight against a group of ruthless terrorists. It was remade in Tamil as Kuruthipunal, produced by Kamal Haasan and directed by P. C. Sreeram, which was India's official entry for the 68th Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film category.

Plot

Indian cities are being terrorized by a group of people who want the government to give in to their demands and are willing to go to any extent for that purpose. Honest, experienced and diligent cops Abhay Singh (Om Puri) and Abbas Lodhi (Naseeruddin Shah) are part of the anti terrorism task force set up by the government to eliminate the menace.

Abbas Lodhi comes up with the idea of "Operation Dhanush", which involves sending two undercover cops, Anand (Manoj Bajpai) and Shiv (Milind Gunaji) among the terrorist group, so that they shall be part of them and learn all about them, and can call him through radio and transmit all the information under the code name Dhanush. Only Abbas and Abhay know about this operation.

Om Puri

Om Rajesh Puri OBE (born 18 October 1950) is an Indian actor who has appeared in mainstream commercial Indian and British films, Independent films and art films. His credits also include appearances in American films. He has been awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India.

Early life

Om Puri was born in Ambala, Haryana, to a Punjabi Hindu family. His father worked in the railways and in the Indian Army. Puri graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He is also an alumnus of the 1973 class of National School of Drama where Naseeruddin Shah was a co-student.

Career

Puri has worked in numerous Indian films and in many films produced in the United Kingdom and the United States.

He made his film debut in the 1976 Marathi film Ghashiram Kotwal, based on a Marathi play of the same name by Vijay Tendulkar. It was directed by K. Hariharan and Mani Kaul in cooperation with 16 graduates of the FTII. He has claimed that he was paid "peanuts" for his best work. Along with Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, he was among the main actors who starred in what was then referred to as art films such as Bhavni Bhavai (1980), Sadgati (1981), Ardh Satya (1982), Mirch Masala (1986) and Dharavi (1992).

Mita Vashisht

Mita Vashisht (born 1967) is an Indian television, film and theatre actress.

Early life

Vashisht was born on 5 November 1967 in Pune, Maharashtra, India to Rajeshwar Dutt Vasisht, a retired Colonel in the Indian Army and Meenakshi Mehta Vasisht, a teacher and musician.

A post-graduate in literature from Punjab University, Chandigarh and a graduate from the National School of Drama (Delhi)in 1987, Vashisht is also visiting faculty to some of the premier design, film and theatre institutes of India – the NIFT (Delhi), FTII (Pune), NSD (Delhi) and the NID (Ahmedabad). She has also conducted theatre workshops in the UK (London, Birmingham, Leicester) and in Damascus. She teaches students of fashion design, film direction and acting, using theatre techniques.

Career

Vashisht has worked in off-beat cinema as well as in commercial roles. She has worked in theatre and has written scripts as well. Since 2004, she has performed her solo play in English and Hindi, titled, Lal Ded, based on life of medieval Kashmiri mystic Lal Ded, all over India.

Naseeruddin Shah

Naseeruddin Shah (born 20 July 1949 or 16 August 1950) is an Indian film and stage actor and director, and a prominent figure in Indian parallel cinema. Shah has won numerous awards in his career, including three National Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards and an award at the Venice Film Festival. The government of India has honoured him with the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan awards for his contributions to Indian cinema.

Early life

Shah was born into a Muslim family in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh state of India. He is a descendant of a 19th-century Afghan warlord Jan-Fishan Khan who participated in the First Anglo-Afghan War and helped the British in the subsequent Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Shah did his schooling at St. Anselm's Ajmer and St Joseph's College, Nainital. He graduated in arts from Aligarh Muslim University in 1971 and attended National School of Drama in Delhi. He has been successful in mainstream Bollywood cinema as well as in Parallel Cinema. He has appeared in international films, notably playing Captain Nemo in the Hollywood adaptation The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Smita Patil

Smita Patil (17 October 1955 – 13 December 1986) was an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. Regarded among the finest stage and film actresses of her times, Patil appeared in over 80Hindi and Marathi films in a career that spanned just over a decade. During her career, she received two National Film Awards and a Filmfare Award. She was the recipient of the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour in 1985.

Patil graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune and made her film debut with Shyam Benegal'sCharandas Chor (1975). She became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, a New Wave movement in India cinema, though she also appeared in several mainstream movies throughout her career. Her performances were often acclaimed, and her most notable roles include Manthan (1977), Bhumika (1977),Aakrosh (1980), Chakra (1981), Chidambaram (1985) and Mirch Masala (1985).

Apart from acting, Patil was an active feminist (in a distinctly Indian context) and a member of the Women's Centre in Mumbai. She was deeply committed to the advancement of women's issues, and gave her endorsement to films which sought to explore the role of women in traditional Indian society, their sexuality, and the changes facing the middle-class woman in an urban milieu.