Qissa

PLOT SUMMARY

As a result of the Partition of 1947, Umber Singh is forced to leave his homeland. He migrates to Punjab, India. After three daughters, he obsessively wishes for a male heir. When his fourth daughter is born, he decides to wage a fight against destiny, and raiser her as a boy, Kanwar Singh (Tillotama Shome). In time, Kanwar grows up and becomes a truck driver. When Kanwar is married to Neeli (Rasika Dugal), this gives birth to complications.
Umber's obsession with wanting a male heir goes to such lengths that at one point he even tries to seduce his daughter-in-law Neeli in the hope that she will give his family an heir. He obviously knows that Kanwar is a girl and cannot impregnate Neeli, so he tries this extreme step.

To stop his father's madness of trying to sleep with his own wife, Kanwar shoots his father. After Umber succumbs to the bullet, Kanwar and Neeli leave their home and go to Kanwar's mother Mehar's family home that is lying empty. Of course Neeli tries her level best to get Kanwar to admit that she is a girl. But Kanwar suffers an identity-crisis. Even the village is up-in-arms against Kanwar and Neeli because they suspect that Kanwar is a boy who had been cross-dressing.
Back home Kanwar's mother and two sisters die in a fire. Only the elder sister survives the fire but she has lost her sanity. Kanwar is haunted by his father's ghost. Ultimately Neeli too who cannot handle the complexity of the situation jumps to her death. And the film ends with the ghost of Umber seeking Neeli's forgiveness.