Drama, an adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, set in post-independence India. Maya is a passionate woman, searching for fulfilment through her extramarital affairs, and through fantasy. As the affairs become unrewarding, her fantasies become ever more involving.
Ketan Mehta emerged as one of India's foremost directors with Mirch Masala and he further enhanced his reputation with this imaginative adaptation of Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Set in the days following independence from Britain, Mehta manages to be faithful to the spirit of the novel while also developing his own themes, using Maya's passionate fantasies and unrewarding affairs to highlight the mood of the Indian people in 1949, torn between the notion of nationhood and nostalgia for the Raj. Deepa Sahi is impressive in the lead for a film made with backing from Channel 4.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Maya | Deepa Sahi |
| Charudatta Das | Farooque Sheikh |
| Rudrapratap Singh | Raj Babbar |
| Lalit Kumar | Shah Rukh Khan |
| Old interrogator | Satyadev Dubey |
| Young interrogator | Shrivallabh Vyas |
| Maya's father | Dr Shree Ram Lagoo |
| Charu's mother | Sudha Shivpuri |
| Lala Lekhchand | Paresh Rawal |
| Beggar | Raghuvir Yadav |
| Harchand Gyani | Arvind Vaidya |
| Gopal | Idris Malik |
| Hetumal Sethia | Anil Gupta |
| Jatin | Manish Nagpal |
| Kabuliwala | Rajesh Vivek |
| Maid | Alpana Upadhyay |
| Chhaya | Baby Farah |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Ketan Mehta |
