In colonial India, a cruel subedar has fixed his tyranny on the people of a local village. He takes a heavy tax from even their merger earnings and is absolutely heartless and rude. He also an a lustful eye for women and wants a new one everyday. The villagers have no choice but to satisfy his hunger for entertainment by arranging parties even with their limited resources and supply women to him. The Mukhi of the village tries to negotiate the best with the subedar so he doesn’t oppress the villagers much. One day however the nasty subedar’s eye catches the sight of a beautiful and confident local woman named Sonbai. He approaches her in every way he can and tries to sweet talk his way into her heart but the clever Sonbai out rightly rejects his advances, insulting him in front of all the village by slapping him across his face.
Sonbai is now chased by the Subedar’s soldiers who are in hot pursuit of her. She then notices a masala factory and enters it. The kind Muslim gatekeeper Abu Mian lets her in and promptly shuts the gates. The soldiers try to reason with the old gate keeper but he is adamant and wont let anyone in or out. The Subedar then threatens him but he stands his ground. The villagers now want Sonbai to give up as this will make matters worse for the others. Abu however stops her from changing his mind. Meanwhile the Subedar forces himself inside the factory shooting Abu Mian dead. He grabs Sonbai but surprisingly all the women working in the factory attack the subedar and throw fresh red chilli powder in his face while he screams in agony.
The film is directed by Ketan Mehta and produced by Ravi Malik, P B Sale. The music is composed by Rajat Dholakia. The story is written by Chunilala Mediya. The star cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Suresh Oberoi, Smita Patil, Rajen, Om Puri, Dina Pathak, Raj Babbar and Deepti Naval.
