[1] The film is a satirical comedy on politics and prostitution, and stars Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah among others.

[3] Mandi is the Hindi film with the highest number of Filmfare Award winners (12) in the cast (Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Neena Gupta, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Saeed Jaffrey, Annu Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Pankaj Kapur, Amrish Puri, Ila Arun and K. K. Raina).

Additionally the film includes (4) Filmfare nominees in the cast (Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Anita Kanwar, Ratna Pathak Shah and Soni Razdan).

One day Rukmini Bai gets the news, that she, now, has a new landlord Mr. Gupta (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), whose daughter Malti (Ratna Pathak) is to marry Mr. Aggarwal's (Saeed Jaffrey) son, Sushil, shortly.

Given the finesse of Zeenat and Basanti, Mr. Gupta invites Rukmini Bai with her women to perform at his daughter's engagement ceremony.

In the meanwhile, it is shown that the City Councillor, Shantidevi (Gita Siddharth), who also runs the Women Organisation of the town is averse to Rukmini Bai and her doings.

The committee agrees to her demands and Rukmini Bai and her women are forced to relocate to a new place on the outskirts of the city which happens to be near the Dargah of Baba Karak Shah.

Rukmini Bai is in a state of shock and with a heavy heart, she quits the brothel with her faithful helper Tungrus (Naseeruddin Shah).