The film begins in 1857, when India was ruled by the British East India Company. Mangal Pandey is a sepoy, a soldier of Indian origin, in the army of the East India Company. Pandey is fighting in the Anglo-Afghan Wars and saves the life of his British commanding officer, William Gordon. Gordon is indebted to Pandey and a strong friendship develops between them, transcending both rank and race.

Shekhar Khosla (Jackie Shroff) is an accounts executive, an alcoholic and a penniless playboy. He has an on-and-off romance with cabaret dancer Julie (Ritu Shivpuri)

Early-1940s, rural British India. When a woman decides to fight against the village's despotic subedar and is supported by the guard of the local spice factory, more women join to defy the prevailing oppression.

In a typical college in a typical Indian city, the hostel boys Madan Sharma (Aamir Khan) and his friend are a rowdy lot. The teaching staff suffer from the common apathy of most teachers in similar colleges. The administration has the usual problems, with ill-paid employees periodically going on strike. On the whole, the college is a very normal place. But on this particular day, when Madan and his friends rise from their slumber, some with the customary hangover, they are not so perturbed to find no water in the taps again, as when they hear that it is not going to be a holiday after all. Instead there will be a lecture in the auditorium by the Chairman of the Board (Dr. Shriram Lagoo), on the day of the festival of fire, Holi, and the boys decide not to attend the classes. The hostel superintendent Professor Singh (Naseeruddin Shah), the only lecturer with some human links with the students...

Miss India and an aspiring actor spend a night together roaming the streets of Mumbai and unwittingly clash paths with a megalomaniacal gangster planning to take over India.

Miss India and an aspiring actor spend a night together roaming the streets of Mumbai and unwittingly clash paths with a megalomaniacal gangster planning to take over India.

Early-1940s, rural British India. When a woman decides to fight against the village's despotic subedar and is supported by the guard of the local spice factory, more women join to defy the prevailing oppression.

In a drought-stricken city in India, the emperor Maharaja Dhiraj Chandrasen, who has two wives, and no children, orders all kinds of rituals to appease the Rain Gods

A Bollywood obsessed auto-rickshaw meets and falls in love with an actress. When the film crew packs up and leaves, he too sets off to Bombay to be close to her.

A frustrated housewife whose marriage to an average man does not meet her expectations enters into an affair with a younger man. Of course, there are no easy escapes from reality.