Sur Sangam (1985)

This exquisitely crafted musical revolves around Pandit Shivshankar Shastri, a man of great integrity, who is also a very popular classical Hindustani singer. He is so devoted to his music that his practice has become a form of penance to aid his spiritual evolution and bring about liberation from the cycle of birth and death.

People come in huge numbers to listen to his voice and consider him a great man. Tulsi is a sex worker's daughter who has great interest in music and dance. She is also an admirer of Shastri and learns music from him when he used to teach his own daughter along the riverside. But her mother wants her to join her profession to earn money.

One day a rich client of her mother's rapes Tulsi. He insults Shastri saying that now that he is done with Tulsi, she could go and flirt with Shastri all she wanted. Enraged by the disgrace towards Shastri, her guru, she kills the client. Shastri tries to save her by consulting his lawyer brother, who wins the case in Tulsi's favour and her mother is sent to jail.

Then Shastri brings her to his home where other people insult him, as Tulsi is a murderer and daughter of a prostitute, while Shastri is a devout Brahmin. Tulsi moves out of his house as she does not want him to be insulted because of her but hopes to show her gratitude towards him.

Ten years later, the popularity of pop music and Western influences have grown to such an extent in India that Shastri loses his classical music audience. He becomes impoverished and lives in a small house with his grown up daughter. When Tulsi comes to know of Shastri's plight she tries to help him financially but gives the money through someone else. Tulsi inherits all of her mother's property and utilizes all of it to help him.

She also asks her son to go to Shastri's home and learn classical music from him. After managing to get an entry to Shastri's home, he starts learning classical Hindustani music from the maestro. When a dilettante falls in love with Shastri's daughter, Shastri initially rejects the alliance, but later agrees after learning of the man's interest in classical music. Tulsi then arranges for a concert on the day of Sastri's daughter's wedding, where Shastri finds his lost audience return to hear his voice.

Shastri sings at the concert and halfway through it suffers a heart attack and finds his new disciple, Tulsi's son, take over the concert from him. As he watches him with pride, he also sees Tulsi and finds out that the boy is indeed, Tulsi's son. After the performance, he symbolically anoints the boy as heir to his music. Tuasi comes to her guru and falls down at his feet. The film ends with death of both Shastri and Tulsi on the stage.