Kisaan 2009

Widower farmer Dayal Singh, Jackie Shroff, is a steady, observant presence in Palheri, a small community in the Chandigarh district where Zamindars still pull the strings of land, money, and fear. He sees how the system drains hope from the fields and the people who tend them, and he weighs his options to secure his family’s future. To give his elder son Aman Arbaaz Khan a chance at education and a legal career, Dayal sends him to the city, hoping knowledge and a degree will become a shield for the family. In contrast, his younger son, Jigar Sohail Khan, remains at the farm to learn the rhythms of the land and help keep the family livelihood intact.

Years pass, and the world around them changes as a new force arrives in the district. Sohan Seth Dalip Tahil comes with money and ambition, aiming to buy up the farmland and reshape the area into a booming commercial zone. The encroachment threatens the villagers’ way of life, and Aman returns home, ready to stand with his father and brother against this outsider’s plans. Together, the siblings and Dayal try to unite the locals, presenting a quiet but firm defense of their land and livelihoods against Sohan’s pressure.

Trouble compounds when Jigar is arrested for assault, a setback that tests the family’s resolve. Aman steps forward to defend him, but the system proves unyielding, and Jigar is sentenced to five long years in prison. The imprisonment fractures the stability of the family’s daily life and deepens the strain between the rural world they cherish and the new, hostile pressures from the outside investor.

When Jigar returns, the landscape has grown bleaker. Dayal lies bedridden, half of his body paralyzed, while a growing wave of farmers has taken their own tragic steps in despair. In the city, Aman has married Priya Dia Mirza, a fellow lawyer who has aligned herself with the fight against Sohan. Yet Aman has become entangled in the very system he once opposed, working for Sohan and applying pressure on Dayal and other farmers to sell their lands. Priya, meanwhile, is not merely a supportive spouse; she is actively gathering proof against Sohan Seth, driven by a quest for justice that puts her in harm’s way.

The danger crescendos as Priya’s investigations put her in the path of Sohan’s men, who attack her in an attempt to silence her. Aman learns the hard truth of the cost of fighting a powerful foe and is forced to confront the consequences of his choices. He acts decisively to help his brother take down the men who threaten their family and community, a move that marks a turning point in the struggle against the encroachment.

Amid the turmoil, reconciliation begins to bloom. Aman reconnects with his ailing father, renewing a sense of family duty and solidarity that had frayed under strain and distance. Jigar finds love with Titli Nauheed Cyrusi, and the couple—with Titli’s own courage—joins Dayal in tending the family fields, rebuilding what has been damaged. The film closes on a note of tempered resilience: the family, now stronger and more united, works together on the land as Dayal slowly regains his strength, a testament to endurance and the stubborn hope that sustains farmers and their communities in the face of relentless pressure.