Beta (film)

Raju (Anil Kapoor) is the only son of his rich landlord father Prem (Akash Khuranna). Raju had lost his mother at birth and feels deeply deprived of a mother's love.

On Raju's 5th birthday party, as a promised birthday gift, Prem brings home a new mother Laxmi (Aruna Irani), hoping that she will be a doting and caring mother for Raju. However, Laxmi turns out to be greedy, shrewd and cunning. She married Raju's father only for his vast fortune, money and property. Joining with her brother Totaram (Anupam Kher) and his wife Mynavati (Bharati Achrekar), they conspire on how to transfer all property to Laxmi's name. However, Laxmi and Totaram are enraged when they find out that Prem's first wife had prepared a will before her death transferring all property to Raju. And that Prem is only a trustee to all the wealth. In the will, it has been written that Raju will have full control of his property only after marriage and unless his wife jointly consents with him, he will not be able to transfer his wealth and property to another name.

Laxmi begins her vile schemes. On the front, she puts up an act of being a very loving mother for Raju, who exhilarated for a mother's love, becomes a devoted son. He showers Laxmi with love and respect, ever-ready to obey her every word. In the process, unknowingly, he allows Laxmi to manipulate him. She very cunningly misleads Raju to give up his education. When his father finds out that Raju stopped going to school at Laxmi's instructions, he called out to her to question her. Laxmi and Totaram, hearing Prem, pours oil on the steps causing him to fall down the flight of stairs and hurting his head severely. Using this opportunity, they proved that Prem had become mentally unstable and locked him up in a corner room of the house.

Raju being naïve and uneducated, believed every word of his step-mother and her brother. Over the years, Laxmi increasingly isolated his aging father from the family and mainly Raju.

One day, Raju meets Saraswati (Madhuri Dixit) at a wedding and falls head over heels in love with her. After some pursuing and an intense incident in her village, Raju and Saraswati gets married. In the meantime, Laxmi fixes an alliance for Raju with an equally uneducated girl from their own village, so that she too can be manipulated and can finally succeed in transferring the property in Laxmi and her son, Ramesh (Adi Irani), Raju's step brother's name.

Laxmi is shocked to learn about Raju and Saraswati's marriage. Because Laxmi knew that Saraswati was not only educated but also a very intelligent girl. As usual, Laxmi puts on an act of a doting mother in front of Saraswati also. But Saraswati soon discovers that Laxmi, Totaram, Mainavati, Ramesh and his wife Kunika (Kunika) are all scammers and that their love for Raju is only a ruse. She challenges to expose their deceit to Raju.

First thing, Saraswati takes Prem to the temple thus releasing him from the confined room of 20 years. This bold step of Saraswati antogonised Laxmi. Laxmi clearly disapproved of her guts. But Saraswati successfully proved to all that his father was normal. Initially, Saraswati had to bear the brunt of Raju's anger when she tried to convince him of his mother's conniving intentions. After which, Saraswati cleverly exposed every one who had been cheating Raju over the years. For every attempt of Laxmi's schemes, Saraswati wittingly played and backfired their plans ensuring that Raju gets the message and yet not offended.

In one incident, Saraswati, along with Prem and their faithful servants Pandu (Laxmikant Berde) and Champa (Priya Arun), planned for Laxmi to slip and fall, forcing her to be bedridden. Promptly, the responsibility of the entire household is handed over to Saraswati. Laxmi is infuriated and plots to get rid of Saraswati for good.

When Saraswati becomes pregnant, her father, Shyamlal (Satyen Kappu) comes home with hoards of sweets for her in-laws and a box of saffron. He requests that a pinch of saffron be mixed with milk and be given to Saraswati. Laxmi, adds poison to the box of saffron. She prepares the milk and tells the unaware Raju to give Saraswati the milk along with a pinch of the poisoned saffron. Champa, who witnessed Laxmi mixing the poison, runs to Saraswati's rescue, narrating everything that happened and warns her against drinking the poisoned milk. A devastated Saraswati informs Raju the same. But blinded by Laxmi's love, Raju not only refuses to believe her, he even accuses her of conspiring stories against his mother. In defense, Raju drinks the poisoned milk to prove to Saraswati her error. Raju's world comes crumbling down when he coughed up blood.

He, then recollected and realised that everything he had heard about Laxmi all these years from others were eventually true. Yet, Raju could not bring himself to hate Laxmi. His words to Laxmi before dying touched her deeply. Laxmi repented that her greed for wealth stretched a bit too far this time to the point of killing a son who had loved her with a true heart.

Saraswati, in the meantime, rushed to get a doctor. On returning she is told that if she wants Raju alive she will have to sign the property transfer papers. Saraswati agrees immediately. However, Laxmi forbids Saraswati from signing it and apologizes to her. A fight ensues between Laxmi and Ramesh. Totaram and Mynavati also joins with Ramesh. Ultimately, it required Raju himself to come forward to save Laxmi from being killed by Ramesh.

Eventually Raju recovers and hands over the signed property papers to Prem. He bids good-bye to his father, Pandu and Champa. He boards the vehicle with Saraswati to leave his home for good, when Laxmi begs him not to leave. To prove her remorse she rips up the papers and tells him that all she wants is nothing more than "her son". The family is happily reconciled.

• Anil Kapoor as Lokesh "Raju" Chautala– Prem's son; Laxmi's stepson; Saraswati's husband
• Madhuri Dixit as Saraswati Chautala– Raju's wife
• Aruna Irani as Laxmi Chautala– Raju's stepmother
• Laxmikant Berde as Pandu
• Anupam Kher as Totaram
• Priya Arun as Champa
• Akash Khurana as Prem Khurana Laxmi's husband; Raju's father
• Kunika as Kunika
• Adi Irani as Ramesh Chautala– Raju's Half Brother
• Bharati Achrekar as Mainavati
• Rajeev Mehta as Groom in a Marriage (Uncredited Role)
• Jack Gaud as Goon of Ramesh (Uncredited Role) in last scene of Movie
• Gurbachan Singh as Tiwari (Uncredited Role)

All songs sung by Anuradha Paudwal with male Co-singers The soundtrack of Beta was the second best selling album of the year.[3] Anand-Milind were nominated in the Filmfare, Best Music Directors category, but lost out to Nadeem-Shravan for Deewana. Anuradha Paudwal won her third consecutive Filmfare award for Best Female playback singer. Music directors Dilip Sen–Sameer Sen, Amar-Utpal and Naresh Sharma's compositions are included in the album but not in the film, nor are they credited in the film titles. Audio is available on T-Series.

Ilaiyaraja's music for the song "Abbanee Teeyani" from the film Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari in 1990, has been used for the song "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga".

38th Filmfare Awards

Won

• Best Actor – Anil Kapoor
• Best Actress – Madhuri Dixit
• Best Supporting Actress – Aruna Irani
• Best Female Singer – Anuradha Paudwal – "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga"
• Best Choreographer – Saroj Khan – "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga"

Nominated

• Best Film – Indra Kumar, Ashok Thakeria
• Best Director – Indra Kumar
• Best Performance in a Comic Role – Laxmikant Berde
• Best Music Director – Anand-Milind

The story line has been inspiration for various movies and has had various remakes in Indian film industry.

• Beta at IMDb