Dhoop (2003)

Right from Peon to Principal, and from the most lowly menial staff to the office of the Prime Minister, modern secular India is embedded in corruption by officials who brag that even if Mahatma Gandhi were to approach them to grant access to his very own Sabarmati Ashram, he would not be spared. In this era a honest man is defined as one who readily accepts a bribe and does the needful, while a dishonest man is one who accepts a bribe but refuses to do the needful. It is in this atmosphere that the Kapoor family live. This family consists of Suresh Kumar Kapoor, a Professor at a Delhi college; his wife, Sarita, who is a Librarian, and a son who is Captain Rohit in the 7th Jat Regiment of the Indian Army. Suresh is pitted against the corrupt system when he receives word that his son has been killed in Kargil, when the fragile truce between Pakistan and India was broken, resulting in thousands of deaths on both sides. In condolence, Suresh and Sarita receive messages from various army officials, politicians, including the State Chief Minister as well the President of India. Their to-be daughter-in-law, Peehu A. Verma is shattered by Rohit's death, and decides never to get married. The army offers them a plot of land so that they can open a petrol pump as a means of livelihood. Suresh, Peehu and a reluctant Sarita decide to call it "Kargil Heights" and go about obtaining the necessary documents to get it running, little knowing that the corrupt system will not permit them to take a step forward without bribing it's officers, of all ranks, who will refuse to issue any permit unless and until their palms are greased. Will Suresh, Sarita and Peehu ever be able to open "Kargil Heights", or will it just remain a dream?