On the first day of the shooting of his film, Pramod introduces the cinematographer 'M' to young Sushmita, the main actress in the film and her lovely mother Mrs. Jyothi Bhat. As the shooting progresses, the relationships among them start changing. Sushmitha starts liking M and starts calling him "Cheta", meaning elder brother in Kerala. M decides to cast Sushmita as Asha in the film he is planning to direct. Pramod, who has so far remained a chronic bachelor, though he plays around with girls and makes films on them, starts getting a strange and pure feeling towards Sushmita.

Sanjay wanted to study art, but his domineering father, an engine driver in retirement after a crippling injury, insisted that a railway job, with its security, was the best thing for him. So Sanjay ended up as a train conductor, unhappy with the career forced upon him, and the mechanical, meaningless life that he lives. In the course of his duty on the train, he runs into a working girl, Shalini and feels attracted to her. His father hears about his interest in Shalini, strongly disapproves of it and intervenes in Sanjay's life once again. Unable to stand up to his father, Sanjay soon finds himself married to a village girl. Life becomes even more unbearable for Sanjay. He takes to wandering and seeks comfort in drink and brothels. One final chance comes his way to break loose from his shackles and plan a new life with Shalini. He lets it pass.

By the end of the century, Hindu thought and philosophy had acquired several obscurities and inconsistencies and faced a challenge from other heterodox sects and Buddhism. Born in Kerala, Shankaracharya arrived on the religious scene around this time. As a boy he was instructed in the religious life by his father and made to practice the prevalentrituals. His father's death, however, compelled him to think deeply about life and death, the body and the soul. With his mother's approval, Shankaracharya decided to lead a life of austerity. Donning the robes of the renouncer he set out on a journey in the quest of Truth, a journey which would take him across the sub-continent. Shankaracharya furthered the school of Vedantic thought and propagated the Advaita (Monism) philosophy, eventually leading to the establishment of the four famous learning centres in the far corners of India.

On a foggy winter morning, a Dalit family in a village in Punjab wakes up to the news of the demolition of a house of one of their community members on the outskirts of the village. Father, a silent sympathiser, joins his community in demand for justice for the affected family. The same day, his son Melu, a cycle-rickshaw puller in the city, is participating in a strike by his union. Injured and alienated, Melu spends the day quietly resting and later joins his friends as they tease him over his state of affairs. Hesitantly, he drinks with them in the night as they debate the meaning of their existence. Cycling through the city streets, Melu feels lost and wonders where to go and what to do. Back in the village, his mother feels humiliated at the treatment meted out by the landlords in whose fields she works. Gunshots are heard in the night and the village is tense. It's the night of the lunar eclipse. A man wanders asking for the traditional alms while Father decides to visit the city with a friend, even as his daughter Dayalo walks through the village streets in the night.

Living in his ancestral mansion in a jungle, Raja Saheb, a widower passes his time hunting. Once, with a tribal boy and with his guests-two couples-he goes on a hunting spree. On the way some strange things happen which push everyone into deep introspection.

Arvind Desai is the only son of a rich businessman who deals in luxury handicraft products. His feelings for his father are mixed. While he hates his dominating nature, he admires his power and lack of scruples. He has long discussions on art & politics with a Marxist friend. He is seeing his father's secretary, Alice and sometimes he visits a prostitute, Fatima. His marriage is arranged to a girl from a high-class family who has just returned from Paris, but much to Alice's mohter's dismay Alice she realizes that Alice was nothing more than a passing fancy for Arvind.

A young man takes a journey on a cart through jungles to reach the small hamlet of Bangarwadi, inhabited by a few shepherds, peasants and some members of a criminal tribe known as the Ramoshis. The young man goes there as a teacher. After the initial trauma, he finds the milieu and the environment very inspiring and educative. But then he is transferred to some other school. What remains with him is the memory of the simple folk and their pure nature.

The film Bioscope is set in the second decade of the 20th century. The film unfolds in the backdrop of cinema making its appearance in Kerala. The protagonist Diwakaran's new journey begins with his acquisition of a bioscope from the Frenchman DuPont, who does bioscope shows on the coasts of Tamil Nadu. He returns home and starts conducting bioscope shows in his village. The villagers welcome the new images with innocence. Yet, some suspect that the bioscope box has ghosts of the British hidden in it.

Diwakaran's wife, Nalini, is ill. His father is deeply concerned and believes that modern medicines are incapable of curing Nalini and looks for medicines and cure in astrology and witchcraft. Diwakaran is greeted by all of these forces when he arrives home with his brand new images - by the innocence of the villagers and obstinacy of tradition. A witch doctor, arrives with a mute girl that can tell what is past and predict the future, sounds the death knell for the bioscope...

The exorcism of tradition over the pulse of modernity...

Biswaprakash's journey away from home from time to time, becomes his endeavour for self realization about the changing value system because of a new consumer culture. He develops friendship with Anjali, an independent young lady who stays along with her mother on the outskirts of the town in their old mansion near the sea. Their relationship comes to an end soon. One day Biswaprakash meets a traveller named June from abroad and leans on her with the hope of escaping from the claustrophobic town. He gradually becomes friendly with many foreign travellers and slowly gets totally alienated from his friends, family and society. Time comes when June leaves for a new destination and that finds Biswaprakash stuck in a no-return situation.

One of the most experimental films made in the Indian cinematic horizon, Char Adhyay, by auteur Kumar Shahani, is a poignant tale on the adverse effects of nationalism and patriotism. Based on Tagore's novel of the same name, the film, as the novel, shows the destructive potential and hypocrisy of any belief system that is followed blindly and that places itself above the human needs of its followers. Set in the terrorist phase of the Indian freedom movement, it tracks the story of Ela, who has become a living mascot and metaphor of the nation for a group of armed revolutionaries. Though happy at first, she begins to question this and the movement when one member of the group, Atin, resists and expresses his revulsion towards this indoctrination. The two fall in love, but, would a group, blindly sold to an ideology, allow the simplicity of this beautiful love? Char Adhyay, the film, is a nuanced, restrained interpretation of Tagore's work that both complements and accentuates the novella.