Bollywood romantic crime drama flick, Shamaa, directed by Naseem Basit and written by Kadar Khan was released on November 13, 1981. The movie starred Girish karnad and Shabana Azmi in lead roles while Raju Shrestha, Sudha Chopra, Aruna Irani, Kadar Khan, Leena Chitnis, Dina Pathak, Amjad Khan, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Yunus Parvez and Satyendra Kapoor also played significant characaters in the film. The hit music of the movie was directed by the female music director Usha Khanna while the songs were sung by Lata Mangeshkar etc.

Nawab Yusuf Khan ( Girish Karnad ) is living a wealthy lifestyle alongwith his younger brother, Aslam and school going son, Shahnawaz ( Raju Shrestha ). He get shocked to reveal that his younger brother has fallen in bad company. He learns about Aslam’s frequent visits to a courtesan named Pheroza ( Aruna Irani ). He forces Aslam to get married to another girl named Shamaa ( Shabana Azmi ). Aslam escapes from the house on his wedding day. He get married to Pheroza. Aslam returns to the house alongwith Pheroza, her mother and a maternal uncle.

In order to keep Shahnawaz away from Pheroza and her relatives, Nawab Yusuf sends him to a hostel. Nawab then get married to Shamaa and brings her home. Shamaa then also convince Nawab to bring back Shahnawaz from the hostel. But problem arises when Shamaa is accused for having an illicit affair with Advocate Prakash Ghosh ( Kulbhushan Kharbanda ).

The songs of the movie are:

1. Mere mehboob tujhe
2. Dhadkte dil ki
3. Chand apna safar