Vinayak, a forest guard, lives a lonely life, with just the memories of his dead wife, in a Government house in the dense forests of Goa-Karnataka border. His repeatedly rejected pleas for a transfer by his superiors in the Department of Forests have left him bitter. One night, he comes across a filthy, unkempt mentally challenged woman lying in the compound outside his house. He drives her away but she keeps returning. From his initial irritation with her filthy appearance and irate behaviour, he slowly gets used to her daily visits looking for food and sleeping in the courtyard. With time, he begins to derive comfort from her presence.
Vinayak's growing relationship with the woman initially attracts some comments but evokes a strong protest in the village only when she gets pregnant. The villagers question Vinayak's right over the mentally challenged and helpless woman. They maintain that his relationship is morally incorrect and should be ended. However, for Vinayak, the woman is his companion and the mother of his child and there is no dilemma in his mind over this. Thus begins a conflict between a society that refuses to take responsibility of such a woman and one man's endeavour to integrate her in his life.

Parinamam tackles the age old issue of loneliness and redundancy among the aged. Balakrishna Marar faces callous treatment from his family after his retirement. Parallel to his story is that of the mentally disturbed and lonely former judge Damodaran Nambeeshan, who goes to Kashi in search of peace. There are five other senior citizens whose problems form the basis of the film. The story is about all these good people whose lives fall apart when they grow old. They lose everything they hold dear and start feeling rejected, as if they are burdens on their family and society.

A rich middle-aged widow Damayanti, a high society patron of the arts, hosts a party in honour of Diwakar Barve, a celebrated playwright and novelist, who has received a prestigious literary award. The party attracts the literary and cultural elite of the town, as also the fawning cognoscenti, which trail in their wake. One name keeps cropping up in the course of the conversation - Amrit, a writer of immense talent and potential, once very much patronized by this set. Amrit, the powerful poet, left a promising literary career to join the tribal people in their struggle against exploitation. His attempt to bridge the chasm between words and deed haunts all others at the party. He is the invisible thread binding the tapestry of the film together, his enigmatic presence finally becoming more meaningful and poignant than all the rest.

Piroj and Pestonjee are two friends who get along well in spite of being so different in temperament. Piroj, an accountant, is reserved while Pestonjee, is an extrovert. Jeroo, a pretty girl and of marriageable age, is shown to both Piroj and Pestonjee on separate occasions. While Piroj dithers about marrying her, Pestonjee instantly makes up his mind, unaware that his friend has also seen and liked the same girl. Piroj is hurt, but it does not mar their friendship. Piroj is transferred to Bhusaval but continues to keep in touch. On a brief visit to Bombay he is shattered to discover that the marriage is on the verge of collapse.

Kishunsah is a self-respecting, wise old man who decides to divide his property amongst his family the moment he suspects that all is not well between his sons and daughter-in-law. After the division, Kishunsah settles down with his youngest son, but his tranquil life comes to an end sooner than expected. He has to face the rewards of old age-the humiliation, the insults. He has no value now. One day he is thrown into the junk room to live. He feels completely detached from the family and decides to snap all ties and renounce the world forever.

A mysteriously seductive girl, Pennu ('the girl') comes to a quiet village, creating a strange chasm among male folks, breaking marriages and old friendships. Ummini, a trader who travels to the city and back providing a link for the village to the outer world, and Pennu eventually form a couple, but the turmoil she caused among the locals results in Chindan, a sugar mill operator, mistakenly knifing Ambu, a backward helper and drowning himself. Pennu is forced to leave the village in the end, having dislocated it with her sexuality.

Salaam Bombay! is the gritty tale set in the red light district in Bombay and chronicles the day-to-day life of street children, drug-pushers, pimps and prostitutes. It follows the life of young Krishna who has come to the big city to earn Rs. 500 and is nurturing the dream of going back to his mother someday. Shot on real locations, Mira Nair's debut film Salaam Bombay! was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989.

Salim, the young man with a limp, inhabits a twilight zone. At one level, he belongs to a respectable, proud, though poor family. Salim's roots go deep into this congested, impoverished Muslim neighbourhood. But Salim has also discovered another world, a world of deceptive charm and fatal allurement, organized crime, where a little intimidation, flashing of a knife, unspoken threats of concrete 'mob' action, bring in quick, easy bucks. Tears, and the price to be paid, come later.

Revolving round the central character Sanabi or the grey mare, the film developes a story about Sakhi, a divorced woman, and Sakhi's childhood friend who wants to marry her. In order to demand a yes from her, the man steals away her dear mare. Sakhi fights with the man to regain the control of the grey mare.

The amendment in the law making it compulsory for one-third of the Gram Panchayat representatives to be women, is not received favourbly by the rulling Sarpanch of the village, Thakur Ratan Singh. Although he puts up a front of being in favour of the idea, along with his son Inder Singh, he conspires to field wives of friends, whom he hopes he can control through their husbands and through the caste network. Vidya, wife of Bhanwar Singh who is indebted to the Thakur, is one of the newly elected women Panchayat members. Vidya, who is educated, notices that the political empowerment of women is only on paper and in reality decision-making still continues to be with the manipulative old guard. Vidya decides it is time for a change.

Kedar Babu is a freedom fighter since the days of Gandhiji's call for a Civil Disobedience Movement. Kedar Babu lost his wife at an early stage of his marriage. Since then, he has brought up his only son Sangram with all paternal affection. In town, Sangram stays in the house of a zamindar Bahadur Suryakant Singh, where there is a gradual moral decline. This puts him in a state of dilemma and delusion. In the last encounter with his father, Sangram experiences a new perception of life, illuminated with anxiety.