''Zakhm'' () is a 1998 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Mahesh Bhatt Mahesh Bhatt (born 20 September 1948) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter known for his works in Hindi cinema. A stand-out film from his earlier period is ''Saaransh'' (1984), screened at the 14th Moscow International Film F ...

. The film stars

Ajay Devgn Vishal Veeru Devgan (born 2 April 1969), known professionally as Ajay Devgn, is an Indian actor, film director and producer who works in Hindi cinema. Devgn has appeared in over a hundred films and has won numerous accolades, including four ...

, Kunal Khemu,

Pooja Bhatt Pooja Bhatt (born 24 February 1972) is an Indian film director, actress, voice over artist and film maker. Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of Indian filmmaker, Mahesh Bhatt. Bhatt played her first leading role in Mahesh Bhatt's ...

Sonali Bendre Sonali Bendre (born 1 January 1975) is an Indian actress primarily known for her work in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films. She did modelling assignments prior to making her acting debut with '' Aag'' (1994), which won her the Filmfare Award for Ne ...

and

Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...

. ''Zakhm'' was awarded with the

Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration The Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one o ...

. Devgn's performance won him his first

National Film Award for Best Actor The National Film Award for Best Actor, officially known as the Rajat Kamal Award for the Best Actor (), is an honour presented annually at the National Film Awards of India instituted since 1967 to actors who have delivered the best performanc ...

Plot

Music director Ajay argues with his wife, Sonia. Sonia wants to give birth to their child in England whereas Ajay wants his child to be born in India and does not want to go to England (because of the insecurity caused by the

Mumbai riots In the Bombay riots in December 1992 and January 1993, an estimated 900 people died. The riots were mainly due to escalations of hostilities after large scale protests by Muslims in reaction to the 1992 Babri Masjid Demolition by Hindu Karse ...

). Ajay soon learns that his mother has been burned by a group of Muslim rioters while leaving a temple and is in a critical condition. In a flashback, the struggles that his mother had to undergo to raise her children are shown. She was in love with a Hindu film producer Raman Desai but was not allowed to marry him on account of her Muslim faith. He marries her but does not document or acknowledge their marriage as it was done without any traditional upholdings. The fact that she had children with a Hindu man forces her to hide her faith and live her life as a Hindu, even in front of her son. After his father's sudden death caused by an accident on the day Ajay's younger brother is born, Ajay realizes his mother is a Muslim. She makes him promise to bury her according to her faith when she dies, for it is only through a proper burial that she will be able to find herself reunited with her lover in heaven. She also takes a promise from Ajay that he will never tell his brother about her real identity. Ajay's mother succumbs to the burns. Sonia learns about her mother-in-law's past life and decides not to leave Ajay. She stands by him and supports his decision to bury his mother. However, Ajay's task is impeded by a fundamentalist leader Subodhbhai, who wanted to make this a political issue and encouraged the Hindu youth to kill Muslims. Anand happens to be a youth leader and Ajay's younger brother. But when Anand learns of Subodhbhai's intentions, he stands by his brother's decision to bury their mom according to Islamic customs. Her body is buried as she had desired, and she reunites with Raman in heaven. At last, Ajay is seen releasing his mother's Mangalsutra in the sea, indicating the end of her life of struggle and meeting with her husband.

Cast

as Ajay Desai * Kunal Khemu as young Ajay Desai *

as Director Raman Desai, Ajay's father *

as Noor Hussain Khan, Ajay's mother *

as Sonia Maheshwari, Ajay's wife *

Ashutosh Rana Ashutosh Ramnarayan Neekhra (born 10 November 1967), known professionally as Ashutosh Rana, is an Indian actor, producer, author and television personality. He has worked in Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Hindi films. He has also worked ...

as Subodh Malgaonkar *

Sharat Saxena Sharat Saxena (born 17 August 1950) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films along with Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil films. He has acted in more than 250 Bollywood films. Saxena started his career in the early 1970s and has mainly played su ...

as Inspector Pawar *

Akshay Anand John Gardner (born 30 January 1969), known professionally as Akshay Anand is an Indian actor who appears mainly in Hindi films and television. Early life and career Anand was born as John Gardner and he assumed the name Akshay inspired by his ...

as Anand Kumar Desai, Ajay's brother *

Avtar Gill Avtar Gill is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Hindi and Punjabi language films and television serials. He has done many plays with Indian People's Theatre Association Mumbai. Selected filmography Films * ''Noorie'' (1979) * ''A ...

as Isa *

Zafar Karachiwala Zafar Karachiwala is an Indian actor who starred in the television programme Hip Hip Hurray (TV series) as Rafay (aired on Zee TV). Films * ''Zakhm'' (1998) * ''Manasarovar'' (2004) as George * ''Chai Pani Etc'' (2004) as Satya Kumar * '' Bye By ...

Saurabh Shukla Saurabh Shukla (born 5 March 1963) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, and film director who works in Hindi and a few Tamil and Telugu films. He is famous for his roles in ''Satya'' (1998), '' Nayak: The Real Hero'' (2001), '' Yuva'' (2004), ''L ...

as Gurdayal Singh *

Madan Jain Madan may refer to: Places Armenia * Kapan, a city in Armenia, formerly ''Madan'' *Madan, a small village above Alaverdi in Lori Marz Bulgaria * Madan, Montana Province, a village in the Boychinovtsi municipality of northwestern Bulgaria *Mada ...

as Journalist Anwar *

Vishwajeet Pradhan Vishwajeet Pradhan (born 11 September 1965) is an Indian and television actor who has worked in Hindi films and television. Incidents on sets A major fire broke out on the sets of '' No Problem'' while the unit was shooting in the middle of ...

as Senior Inspector Vishwajeet Yadav

Soundtrack

The music was composed by M. M. Keeravani with lyrics by Anand Bakshi. The soundtrack was released by the HMV Audio Company. The composer selected Chitra for " Gali main aaj Chand nikala " but due to date issues the song was later sung by Alka Yagnik.

Reception

Mukhtar Anjoom of ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by K. N. Guruswamy, a liquor businessman from Ballari and was launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Print ...

'' wrote that "Mahesh Bhatt foolishly swerves and rams the brakes while cruising along a solid theme. By making it personalized, he fails to tackle the wider ramifications of divisive politics and fritters away the opportunity to make a masterpiece of his swansong".

Awards

; National Film Awards *Won: 1998

–

;

Screen Awards The Screen Awards is an annual awards ceremony held in India honouring professional excellence in Bollywood. The nomination and award selection is done by a panel of distinguished professionals from the industry. The awards were introduced by t ...

* Won: 1999 Screen Award for Best Actor –

TV series

The story has been adapted into a TV series, named ''

Naamkarann ''Naamkarann'' () is an Indian drama television series which premiered 12 September 2016 on Star Plus. Inspired by the 1998 Bollywood film '' Zakhm'', it was based on the life of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. The show initially starred child actor A ...

'', airing on

STAR Plus StarPlus is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly ''Star India''), a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. The network's programming consists of family dramas, comedies, ...

from September 2016.

References

External links

* {{Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration 1998 films 1990s Hindi-language films 1998 drama films Films featuring a Best Actor National Award-winning performance Films scored by M. M. Keeravani Films directed by Mahesh Bhatt Best Film on National Integration National Film Award winners Indian drama films Hindi-language drama films