The film has the additional curiosity of being produced by Indian songstress Lata Mangeshkar, whose rendition of "Yara Seeli Seeli" also won a Filmfare Award for the film's director and lyricist (Gulzar).
The movie takes place in the Indian desert state or Rajasthan, which gives it something in common with Rudaali, another off-beat drama set in Rajasthan that was released around the same time and also featured Dimple Kapadia and Amjad Khan. The plot centers around a government employee named Samir (Vinod Khanna), who is sent to Rajasthan to take inventory of items in the abandoned ''haveli''(mansion) of the long-deceased Maharaja Param Singh (Vijayendra Ghatge). When he arrives in Rajasthan, he meets his old friend Shafi (Amjad Khan) who is a tax collector in the area and lives with his wife Sharda (Beena Bannerjee). Sameer begins seeing what he thinks could very well be visions of another time and place, visions that he is shown by a beautiful woman he encounters by the name of Reva (Dimple Kapadia). But is Reva real or just a figment of Sameer's imagination? The drama that unfolds catapults Sameer into a different time and place and shakes his own personal foundation of reality, even as Shafi and his wife fear that their old friend may be losing his mind. Aside from its excellent performance and overall haunting quality of the cinematography, the plot twists and guest appearance of Hema Malini add to the film's charms. Also, as much as Sameer, Reva and Shafi, the desert of Rajasthan itself is a character in this film. Rolling sand dunes and long-deserted havelis create a sense of mystery and wonder, the stuff of dreams (or nightmares).
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