''Swati'' is a 1986 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

romantic drama film Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...

directed by Kranthi Kumar. The film stars

Meenakshi Sheshadri Meenakshi Seshadri Mysore (; née Seshadri; born 16 November 1963) as Shashikala Seshadri, is an Indian former actress and beauty pageant titleholder who worked primarily in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. Seshadri established herself as one ...

in the title role alongside an ensemble star cast consisting of

Shashi Kapoor Shashi Kapoor (pronounced �əʃi kəpuːɾ born Balbir Raj Kapoor; 18 March 1938 – 4 December 2017) was an Indian actor and producer known primarily for his work in Hindi films. He is considered as one of the greatest and most successful acto ...

Sharmila Tagore Sharmila Tagore (; born 8 December 1944) also known by her married name Begum Ayesha Sultana, is an Indian actress primarily known for her work in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali films. Widely recognized as one of the gre ...

Madhuri Dixit Madhuri Dixit Nene (Maiden and married names, née Dixit, ; born 15 May 1967) is an Indian actress and television personality. She has appeared in Madhuri Dixit filmography, over 70 Hindi films. Praised by critics for her performances and danc ...

Raja Bundela Raj Rajeshwar Pratap Singh Judev also known as Raja Bundela is an Indian actor, producer, politician and civil activist.Presently He is the Vice President of Bundelkhand Vikas Board,Uttar Pradesh. In films, he is notable for appearances in S ...

Vinod Mehra Vinod Mehra (13 February 1945 – 30 October 1990) was an Indian actor in Bollywood, Hindi films. He started out as a child actor in the mid 1950s before starting his film career as an adult in 1971. He acted in over 100 films from the 1970s thr ...

, Akbar Khan and

Sarika Sarika (born 5 December 1960) is an Indian actress and costume designer. In 2005, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress for the English-language film '' Parzania''. She was also awarded the National Film Award for Best Costume Des ...

. Meenakshi Sheshadri's performance was highly appreciated and is considered amongst her best performances. The film was a remake of the director's own Telugu film of the same name. The film belongs to the art house cinematic genre, known in India as

parallel cinema Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, is a film movement in Cinema of India, Indian cinema that originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema. Inspired by Italian Neorealism, ...

Plot

Sharda (Sharmila Tagore) is in love with a young man named Satya Prakash. Sharda becomes pregnant and Satya Prakash wants to marry her as soon as possible. He goes out to get the wedding date fixed with Panditji, but a few goons come and attack him and in the process he kills one goon. At the same time, a few goons attack Sharda and tell her that Satya Prakash has sold her and they try to gang-rape her. She somehow manages to run away but gets heartbroken when her boyfriend doesn't return and believes what the goons have told her. She decides to keep the child, names her Swati, re-locates to a small town in Southern India and finds employment as a nurse with Dr. Rajendra. Years later, Swati (Meenakshi Sheshadri) has grown up to be an assertive young woman, who is not only outspoken, but also quite capable of physically defending herself. However, her attitude alienates her and Sharda from the community in general. She befriends Ram Mohan, an activist, who is often in trouble with the police. With no one to look after her mother after she gets married, Swati asks Rajendra, now a widower, to marry Sharda, to which he agrees. The marriage takes place, and both move in to live a wealthy lifestyle with Rajendra and his daughter, Anandi (Madhuri Dixit). Rajendra and Sharda decide to find a suitable groom for Swati, but before that could happen, Anandi finds out that she is pregnant with her boyfriend's child. So Swati and Sharda hide this and Swati's existence from Anandi's in-laws. So Swati moves out, while Anandi's marriage takes place with Prasad Chiranjivi Gupta. But Sharda's troubles with Swati are far from over; as Sharda's long-lost boyfriend, Satya Prakash will soon return into her life, turning Sharda and Swati's lives upside down.

Cast

as Dr. Rajendra Prasad *

as Sharda * Akbar Khan as Ram Mohan *

as Swati *

as Anandi *

as Satyaprakash *

as Kamdev Prasad Chiranjilal Rokadia "Kapil Dev" * Arjun as Manohar Joshi *Madhu Kapoor as Laxmi Joshi *

Shubha Khote Shubha Balsavar (''née'' Khote) is an Indian film and television actress who has worked in several Hindi-language and a few Marathi- Bhojpuri- films. She is also a former women's national champion in swimming and cycling. Early life and educa ...

as Saroj Bhatnagar *

Dinesh Hingoo Dinesh Hingoo (born 13 April 1940) is an Indian actor who played comic and supporting roles in Hindi films. He has appeared in over 300 films, from ''Taqdeer (1967)'' to ''Be Careful (film), Be Careful (2011)'', and is known for his laughter an ...

as Satyanarayan Chaubey *

as Dancer / Singer

Soundtrack

Lyrics:

Anand Bakshi Anand Bakshi (21 July 1930 – 30 March 2002) was an Indian poet and lyricist. He won Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist 4 times during his career. He wrote over 6000 film songs in more than 300 films. Early life Anand Bakshi (Bakshi Anand Pr ...

References

External links

* 1986 films 1980s Hindi-language films 1986 romantic drama films Films scored by Laxmikant–Pyarelal Hindi remakes of Telugu films Films directed by Kranthi Kumar Indian romantic drama films {{1980s-Hindi-film-stub