Daana Paani 2018

Basant Kaur wrote an autobiography titled Daana Paani. When reporters approached her for an interview, she began narrating her life story.

From a young age, she grew up in a loving family, but tragedy strikes when her father dies of a snakebite while saving his brother. The loss brings hardship, as her aunts mistreat them, and her maternal grandfather brings Basant’s mother back to his home, arranging to remarry her. Basant is made to live at her paternal home, with visits to her mother allowed only every six months, a separation that colors her childhood.

Her mother remarries in the village Khiwa. After six months, Basant’s aunt teaches her to say she doesn’t want to meet her mother, and the contact between Basant and her mother is effectively cut off for years.

As the years pass, Basant is married to Mehtaab Singh in a village where the in-laws are neighbors to her mother, offering a sliver of hope that she might someday reunite with her mother.

Meanwhile, two men named Mehtaab Singh exist in the army, sharing the same village names. One dies in a war with China, leaving the other to fulfill a strange and precarious duty. The surviving Mehtaab Singh is sent to the first one’s house to obtain Basant’s signature for army work. From there, he learns that the Muklawa has yet to come and that Basant lives in her village, Ahlowal. He travels there and meets Basant, though his true intentions remain unclear to the family.

Basant’s cousin Bahadur Singh intervenes, asking him to pretend to be Basant’s husband so she can find happiness at last. But Basant’s aunt pushes for a full marriage, and the situation grows tangled. Bheem Singh spots the ruse and reveals the truth to the wider family, triggering chaos. Basant’s uncles consider drastic measures against Mehtaab, but Bahadur Singh pleads Basant’s case and persuades everyone to see her life clearly. In the end, Basant is married to Mehtaab Singh.

The couple returns to Kheewa, where Basant’s mother is performing rituals at the door; Basant recognizes her and the two reconcile after a long estrangement. She then spends the rest of her life with her mother and raises a daughter named Seerat, who lives in Canada. Mehtaab dies a year earlier, inspiring Basant to write her autobiography. Basant passes away from a heart attack while recounting the story, and she joins her parents in heaven along with Mehtaab.