Ijaazat Movie Story
The movie is a powerful story that deals with feminism and patriarchy in the middle class of India. It is shot in the present and past tense showing lives of the characters Mahender and Sudha as they lived together as well as separately. The movie starts with Mahender (
Naseeruddin Shah) getting down at the railway station and making his way to the waiting room just as it starts to rain heavily. A woman, Sudha (
Rekha), is already sitting in the waiting room. On seeing him, she tries to hide her face from him but later they confront each others.
Mahender has an accomplished business dealing with photography. He respects his grandfather (
Shammi Kapoor) immensely. Incidentally, he had been engaged to Sudha for 5 years but always made some excuse to delay their wedding. However, this time his grandfather has fixed the wedding on the first week of the following month. He reveals to Sudha that he is having an affair with one of the most radical representations of feminism in a girl called Maya (
Anuradha Patel). He returns to tell Maya, but Maya has disappeared, leaving him some poetry. Mahender then marries Sudha and is quite happy, but the sudden return of Maya causes tensions in their married life. Mahender frequently tells Sudha about all the beautifully poignant, loving and authentic things Maya did over the years that they lived together. Later, Maya tries to commit suicide, and this leads to Mahender spending time with her over a few weeks. Sudha, not knowing about Maya's suicide attempt and therefore believing that Mahender is being unfaithful to her, feels that her marriage was a mistake, and questions Mahender about his intentions. He then tells her strongly that he is going to bring Maya home to talk to her. Sudha is adamantly against this, but Mahender leaves with determination. However, Maya hears Sudha's anger on the phone and by the time Mahender reaches to pick her up, she has gone away. When he returns home without Maya, he finds that Sudha has also left. Mahender, unable to bear the shock, gets a heart attack. In the days and months that follow, he is looked after by Maya. Sudha continues as a teacher in Panchgani. As time passes, Mahender is beginning to feel convinced that it is time for him to bring Sudha back home. But then he gets Sudha's letter saying that she is releasing him from their marriage and that he is free to marry Maya. A sudden uncontrolled outburst from Mahender makes Maya realize that she was the cause for Sudha's departure and that Mahender missed Sudha deeply. Maya suddenly feels estranged at this abrupt change in their relationship and, in the night, rides off on her motorbike. Mahender rushes to follow her in his car to stop her, but then Maya's long scarf gets entangled in the back wheel of her bike, because of which she gets dragged off her bike and strangled to death.
Sudha is deeply grieved on hearing about Maya's end. Later, as the time for their train approaches, Sudha's husband (
Shashi Kapoor) bursts in unexpectedly to pick her up, and Mahender realizes with a shock that Sudha is now married. As Sudha's husband leaves the waiting room with her luggage, Mahender asks her to forgive him. She touches Mahender's feet as a plea for his forgiveness and for his permission (Ijaazat) for her to leave him, something which she had not received the last time they had separated. Mahender grants her wishes, speaks well of her husband, and gives her his blessings for a happy life. Sudha's husband returns to see what is holding her up, and then, seeing Sudha's teary face, it dawns on him that this man must be her former husband. The movie ends with Sudha and her husband moving on along the platform, and Sudha hanging back a little and looking back tearfully and with great regret, as if she does not want to leave, while Mahender stands outside the waiting room looking on forlornly as she recedes from him.