Arth (film) Information & Arth (film) Links at HealthHaven.com

Arth
	; DVD cover for Arth
Directed by	Mahesh Bhatt
Produced by	Kuljit Pal
Written by	Mahesh Bhatt; Sujit Sen (screenplay)
Starring	Shabana Azmi; Kulbhushan Kharbanda; Smita Patil; Raj Kiran; Rohini Hattangadi
Music by	Chitra Singh; Jagjit Singh
Cinematography	Pravin Bhatt
Editing by	Keshav Hirani
Release date(s)	3 December 1982
Running time	138 min
Language	Hindi

Arth (Hindi: अर्थ, in English: The Meaning) is a 1982 film directed by Mahesh Bhatt, starring Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Smita Patil, Raj Kiran and Rohini Hattangadi. It features a memorable soundtrack by Ghazals duo , Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh.

The semi-autobiographical film was written by Mahesh Bhatt about his extramarital relationship with actress Parveen Babi ^[1]. It is one of the 25 Must See Bollywood Movies as compiled by Indiatimes Movies ^[2].

[edit] Synopsis

Pooja (Shabana Azmi)

Pooja (Shabana Azmi), who grew up as an orphan girl and always dreamt of owning a house, becomes insecure when she finds out that she and her husband, Inder (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), have to leave the apartment they rent. The twist that occurred when Inder gives her the keys of a new house proves to be double-edged, when it is revealed that he is in love with another woman, Kavita (Smita Patil), with whom he earned the money (in the film industry) for the new apartment. While previously giving advice to her maid (Rohini Hattangadi) cheated by her husband, now Pooja becomes herself involved in a similar situation. When Inder deserts Pooja for Kavita, she chooses to leave the apartment for a women's hostel only with 2000 rupees that she had when she got married. She is helped by Raj (Raj Kiran) to surpass the difficulties of a life as a single person, to find a job and to rely morally on herself. Raj and Pooja become good friends. As some time passes, the mental instability of Kavita deepens her fears of insecurity, even after Inder requests Pooja to sign the divorce papers.

Raj falls in love with Pooja and proposes to her. She refuses saying she is empty and cannot give him anything. Raj tries to persuade her saying that she cannot spend the rest of her life feeling miserable about the past and that she should try to find a new life for herself. Pooja promises to think about it. Pooja's maid, whose only aim in life is to secure a good education for her daughter, has saved Rs 1000 towards her admission fees. She finds out that her drunk husband has stolen the money. Furious, she searches for him to find him in the arms of his lover after spending all the money. She kills him and goes to the police station and confesses her crime. Worried about her daughter, she calls Pooja who promises to take care of the daughter. After the insistence of Kavita's mother (Dina Pathak) and of her personal doctor (Om Shivpuri), Pooja personally assures Kavita that she is not interested anymore in Inder. However, the attitude of Pooja only convices Kavita that she did a bad thing breaking a marriage and thus, to escape from her feeling of guilt and insecurity, she breaks the relation with Inder. The latter tries to revive the relation with Pooja, but he is rejected. Pooja continues to live with her maid's daughter and refuses to marry Raj saying that she has found a new meaning to life in being independent and being a mother to the child and marrying Raj will only make her weak.