Zakhm -1998- 21ST CENTURY DVD

When Ajay Desai (Ajay Devgan)’s mother is burnt alive by a mob, during the 1993 Bombay riots, he is forced to confront his explosive past. Ajay’s mother (Pooja Bhatt) had been a woman living under the shadow of humiliation. The mistress of a famous film director, who died before he could legally marry her and legitimize his two children, she had hidden the fact that she was a Muslim. Her dying wish is to be buried according to the tenets of her own religion. But Ajay’s younger brother is the right-hand man of a Hindu fundamentalist leader. Fulfilling his mother’s wish during the communal riots, becomes the most dangerous mission that Ajay must undertake.

Director Mahesh Bhatt’s tells this one straight from the heart. His own pain and angst while growing up as an illegitimate child, the walls that society puts up between people and the humiliation that his mother faced are still searingly alive in his soul. Powerful performances by Pooja Bhatt and Ajay Devgan authenticate the sincerity of this film, which has Sonali Bendre in a supporting role.