Tawaif (film)

The story is set around a tawaif (courtesan or someone who willingly or otherwise adopts the profession of entertaining others for a living), Sultana, who accidentally enters the life of Dawood (Rishi Kapoor) who already has fallen in love with upcoming writer Kaynat (Poonam Dhillon). Dawood finds himself in a situation such that he has to claim that Sultana (Rati Agnihotri) is his wife. Sultana soon makes room in everybody's heart with her softness and intelligence, love and affection, and playfulness. Dawood's life takes a turn when he acknowledges that he cannot forget his first love Kaynat, but neither can he subdue his new, burgeoning feelings for Sultana, whose true identity he cannot reveal to anybody without dire consequences both for himself and for her. SPOILER WARNING In the end, Dawood accepts he has fallen in love with Sultana, while Suleman Seth (Deepak Parashar), who has always cared deeply for Poonam, confesses his love to her. The songs of the film were written by Hassan Kamal and composed by Chopra's favourite, Ravi. The songs "Tere Pyar Ki Tamanna" and "Bahut De Kar Di" were popular inclusions in the soundtrack of the film.

• Ashok Kumar as Mr. Nigam
• Rishi Kapoor as Dawood Mohammed Ali Khan Yusuf Zahi
• Rati Agnihotri as Sultana
• Poonam Dhillon as Kaynat Mirza
• Deepak Parashar as Sulaiman
• Asrani as Constable Pandya
• Iftekhar as Lala Fakirchand
• Kader Khan as Rahim Shaikh
• Shashikala as Bilqis Bai
• Sushma Seth as Amina Bai

The music for all the songs were composed by Ravi and penned by Hasan Kamaal.

It won two Filmfare awards in 1986:

• Best Dialogue Writer Award for Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza
• Best Story Writer Award for Aleem Masroor

• Tawaif at IMDb