Maachis 1996

Set in Punjab during the late 1980s, a perilous era shaped by the fallout of Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and the 1984 Sikh massacre, this story unfolds largely through a series of stark flashbacks that peel back the layers of fear, loyalty, and vengeance that grip a community pushed to the edge.

Jaswant Singh Randhawa, Raj Zutshi and his sister Veerendar “Veeran,” Tabu live a quiet life with their aging mother, Biji, Navnindra Behl, in a rural village. The family’s once-peaceful routine is upended when the local authorities—Assistant Commissioner Khurana, a stern and unyielding presence, and Inspector Vohra, a relentless figure—arrive in search of Jimmy, accused of trying to shoot a member of Parliament. In a moment of misdirection, Jaswant’s prank leads the police to his puppy, Jimmy, which enrages Khurana and Vohra. Jaswant is detained, and Kripal, his friend and Veeran’s fiancé, begins a frantic search that spans several police stations, only to find him badly beaten upon his return after fifteen days. The brutal brutality of the police leaves a mark on Kripal’s trust in the system and on his view of justice.

Kripal’s anger births a dangerous reckoning. Frustrated by the lack of legal recourse, he seeks help through channels he hopes will deliver accountability. When that path fails, he follows a more dangerous lead to Jeetay, who is connected to militant circles. This search leads him to a highway dhaba where he meets Sanatan, a militant figure who has already carried out a bombing. Kripal pleads for aid, and Sanatan, though wary, agrees to help him navigate the network of militants in a truck packed with explosives.

At the militant hideout, Kripal lays out the reality of his predicament. The Commander, a hardened veteran of the struggle, reveals a painful truth: he killed Jeetay because Jeetay had become a police informant. The Commander refuses to promise Kripal safe passage, insisting that if Kripal wants justice, he must take decisive action on his own by targeting Khurana. Kripal’s resolve hardens as he earns the trust of the group, and Sanatan emphasizes a crucial point: their fight is not about nationalism or religion in abstract terms, but about defending civil rights and resisting a system that harms ordinary people.

Sanatan, who survived the Partition of 1947 and lost much of his family in the 1984 riots, shares his belief that the ruling class manipulates society by pitting communities against each other for political gain. With that worldview guiding him, Kripal trains with the militants. After a year of preparation, Kripal executes Khurana in a crowded marketplace, an act that shatters the sense of safety for everyone around him. The revelation of Khurana’s death devastates Jaswant and Veeran when Kripal returns to bid them farewell before going into hiding.

The road ahead is bleak. The militants, now aware that Kripal is a high-profile target, urge him to disappear, while the group continues to plan new operations, including a mission involving a missile specialist who turns out to be Veeran herself. The ring’s dynamics become personal: Kripal and Veeran quietly marry in secret, only to discover that Veeran carries a cyanide pill, a preventive measure kept by the group in case of capture.

As Kripal and Veeran navigate the blurred lines between loyalty and betrayal, the hunt intensifies. Kripal attempts to surveil Inspector Vohra ahead of a planned strike on Kedar Nath, but he is captured before the mission can proceed. Sanatan, convinced of Kripal’s betrayal, orders Veeran under house arrest and commands Wazir to kill her. Veeran escapes and kills Wazir in the process, while Jaimal Singh leads the subsequent strike on the MP’s convoy. Jaimal dies on the bridge, but Sanatan succeeds in destroying Kedar Nath’s car with a missile.

The pursuit then shifts: Veeran, now deeply embedded in the group, hunts Sanatan herself. A final, brutal confrontation in the woods ends with Veeran killing Sanatan. In a quiet, almost intimate moment earlier, Veeran had slipped Kripal a cyanide pill during a clandestine visit to his prison cell; the film closes on a stark note as Kripal dies in his cell, the cyanide taking its toll, while Veeran sits in the back of a moving pickup, blood streaming from her nose, having swallowed the pill herself.

This is a meditation on how cycles of violence consume not only those who pull the triggers but also the ordinary lives around them, turning acts of defense into acts of reckoning. The narrative leaves the audience with a measured, sorrowful view of a era when trust between citizens and the institutions meant to protect them was strained to a breaking point. In the end, the story lingers on the cost of resistance and the personal toll carried by those who choose to resist a corrupted system.