"A girl learns music from her courtesan grandmother and breaks into the burgeoning show business industry of 1930s Bombay, which eventually leads to decades of superstardom as well as romantic entanglements."
Smita Patil
as Usha
Anant Nag
as Rajan
Naseeruddin Shah
as Sunil Verma
Amrish Puri
as Vinayak Kale
Amol Palekar
as Keshav Dalvi
Sulabha Deshpande
as Shanta
Kulbhushan Kharbanda
as Harilal
Baby Rukshana
as Young Usha
B.V. Karanth
as Usha's Father
Dina Pathak
as Mrs. Kale
Mohan Agashe
as Siddharth
Kusum Deshpande
as Shanta's mother
Rekha Sabnis
as Mrs. Yashwant Kale
Baby Bitto
as Young Sushma
Savha Bajaj
as
Sunila Pradhan
Master Abhitab
as Dinu
H. Lani
Kiran Vairale
as Sushma Dalvi
G.M. Durrani
as Music Teacher
Abhishek
Om Puri
Swadesh Pal
Sudarshan Dhir
as Dance Director
Vijay Padukone
Santosh Shah
Benjamin Gilani
Satyadev Dubey
Dialogue
Vanraj Bhatia
Music
Govind Nihalani
Cinematography
Bhanudas Divakar
Editor
Shama Zaidi
Art Direction
Lilabai Deshpande
Hairstylist
Ishwarlal G. Sharma
Production Manager
Manohar B. Ghanekar
Assistant Director
Prahlad Kakar
Dayal Nihalani
Hitendra Ghosh
Sound
Mohamed Husein Kalsikar
Sound Assistant
B.N. Tiwari
K. Kanti
Assistant Camera
Gyan Sahay
S.R. Sekar
Still Photographer
Kalpana Lajmi
Costume Assistant
Jagdish Mohite
Assistant Editor
Ramnik Patel
Shyam Benegal
Director
Girish Karnad
Screenplay
Hansa Wadkar
Novel
Original Film Writer
Sudarshan Dheer
Choreographer
Ravi Uppoor
Production Assistant
N. J. Kenny
Deepak Prashar
Location Assistant
Santosh Sah
Nira Benegal
Continuity
Majrooh Sultanpuri
Lyricist
Vasant Dev
Preeti Sagar
Playback Singer
Bhupendra Singh
Chandru Atma
Kumari Meena
Firoz Dasturi
Uttara Kelkar
Saraswati Rane
Mangesh Desai
Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Kamat Ghanekar
Technical Advisor
Devi Dutt
Production Controller
Fali M. Variava
Finance
Lalit M. Bijlani
Producer
Freni M. Variava
Vishwanath Govekar
Makeup Artist