Set in a small village in Rajasthan, the film stars Dimple Kapadia as Shanichari, a lonely and hardened woman who, despite a lifetime of misfortune and abandonment, is unable to express grief through crying and is challenged with a new job as a professional mourner.

After curses and threats from the village pundit for not observing the prescribed customs, she takes a loan of 50 rupees to perform the rituals from Ramavatar Singh and becomes a bonded labourer under him.

But the snide remarks of the village pundit and shop-owners fuels conflict between the two women and in a fit of rage after a fight, Mungri aborts the child.

[11] In an attempt to enhance the film's visual appeal, Lajmi chose to change the setting of the story from Bengal to Rajasthan, where she planned to make use of the desertscape and the grand havelis (mansions).

Business India wrote, "Rudaali is the first genuine crossover album to have negotiated the leap from art to mart, via the listeners' heart.

[9] All lyrics are written by Gulzar; all music is composed by Bhupen HazarikaThe film explores themes of caste, class stratification, gender inequality, and poverty, all portrayed through the feudal system and socio-economic marginalisation of poor villagers.

[19] In the book India Transitions: Culture and Society during Contemporary Viral Times, Priya Kapoor calls it "a feminist treatise on solidarity against caste ostracization and the plight of the subaltern woman at the hands of landowning classes".

[21] In another book, Intercultural Communication and Creative Practice: Music, Dance, and Women's Cultural Identity, Kapoor wrote that "Rudaali offers a chance to examine a rural community, colonial and feudal, bound by its caste location".

Author Chandra Bhushan wrote, "Shanichari is dry like a desert but even she has a flavour, affection and audacity and courage to reject the enticement of Zamindar (the landlord).

"[25] According to the book Indian Popular Cinema: A Narrative of Cultural Change, Shanichari is described as "highly vulnerable to all sorts of oppressions.

[26] Reetamoni Das and Debarshi Prasad Nath, film scholars, describe Shanichari as one woman who manages to survive through her harsh realities despite the absence of a man through most of her life.

[16] In the view of Shreerekha Subramanian, the character of Shanichari is an embodiment of the Hindu goddess Sita or her mother Bhumi who suffer at the hands of men.

[16] Pillai Tripthi took note of the film's adoption into the Bollywood format "by turning the public mourning rituals into mellifluous musical performances".

[24] The film's unexpected success at the box office was attributed by author Sumita S. Chakravarty to its "ambivalent self-positioning" between mainstream and art cinema.

According to Chakravarty, the lack of commercial success attained by India's alternative cinema had been due to its "shunning of the melodramatic elements of songs and emotionality, its gritty social realism", which Rudaali embraced altogether.

Dasgupta took note of the story and Lajmi's direction as having contributed to this and added, "Together, director and actress succeed in making a mix of melodrama and realism that works".

[30] Ernest Dempsey reviewed the film for the book "Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing": "Rudaali is a must see for its realism, gripping performances (especially by Dimple Kapadia), and brilliant treatment of an unusual subject with deep psychological implications.

"[32] In a retrospective review, written for the book The Concept of Motherhood in India: Myths, Theories and Realities (2020), Shoma Chatterji expressed mixed feelings for the film.

In spite of this, Chatterji noted that if watched without the original story in mind, Rudaali is "entertaining and educative" in and of itself as it informs "the Indian audience about the oppression of a people it hardly knows about".

"[36] Film Companion wrote, "Remembered as much as for its mellifluous music, as for Dimple Kapadia's National Award-winning performance and its stark realism, Rudaali again broke new ground in terms of its subject – the lives of professional mourners.

[38] The Hindustan Times wrote in 2018 in a piece about Lajmi that Rudaali is particularly noteworthy in her career "as it featured a stellar performance by Dimple Kapadia and is still remembered for its songs and music".

Filmfare included her work in the film in its list of "80 Iconic Performances": "Dimple's phenomenal talent comes shining forth when you see years of suppressed hurt, anger and a sense of life's injustice simply flow from Shanichari's eyes.

"[41] Deepa Gahlot wrote for the Financial Chronicle saying the film starred Kapadia in her finest performance,[12] and included the character of Shanichari in her book of "25 Daring Women of Bollywood".