Holi 1984

In a typical college in a typical Indian city, the hostel boys Madan Sharma and his friends, including Ranjeet Prakash, are a rowdy and troublesome lot. When they learn there will be no holiday for them on the day of Holi, the festival of colors, they decide to skip classes.

The hostel superintendent Professor Singh is the only lecturer with some real links to the students, watching with apprehension as their restlessness grows. A notice announcing a further postponement of examinations adds to the bitterness.

A fight erupts between Principal Pandey’s nephew and another student; the principal’s nephew is hurt and the other boy is rusticated. Word of the punishment spreads like wildfire through the campus, fueling resentment. Resistance crystallizes in the library, the laboratory, the classrooms, and the college grounds as the students push back against the authority.

The principal calls to get the names of the troublemakers, but Singh refuses; the names are eventually supplied by one of the classmates, and soon the students are served suspension notices. On their last day, a classmate is bullied and humiliated by the others. The next day they learn that the classmate has committed suicide, and the film ends with the boys being taken away in a police van while people celebrate Holi outside.