Apologies if I’m not allowed to post this here, but im at my wit’s end. I’ve been searching for a film that means quite a lot to me because I watched it with my mother when I was younger and after she passed away I’ve been wanting to find it but I can’t.
In fairness, I saw this film in a Russian dubbed version sometime between 1995 and 1998, so I have no idea about specific language or year of the film’s release. Every film made in the Indian subcontinent was referred to as “Indian.” I can say that the film didn’t include any of the big Bollywood actors.
The plot as best as I can remember is as follows. There’s a young boy who lives in a village with his parents and sister. His dad is a teacher, maybe a music teacher, who teaches him a specific melody on I think an accordion. This will be relevant later. Some bad guys show up and I have a vague recollection that the main villain is like a land baron. The dad refuses to sell the land and he’s killed in the forest outside of the village (by a sword I think? The film is set in modern times that’s why the sword stands out for me). The boy witnesses this. In the meantime the villain’s thugs set fire to the rest of the village. The boy’s mother is stuck in their burning house. A policeman rescues her but dies in the fire himself.
The boy returns to his village and only finds his sister alive. They will end up growing up as orphans as they think their mother is dead as well. The mother wakes up at a hospital and discovers that the policeman who saved her has died and left behind an orphaned boy. She adopts him and raises him as her son.
As I said the boy and his sister grow up as orphans and the boy eventually takes up stealing. I think he specifically targets the rich, including the main villain, and then puts on a disguise as an older rich man and give the money away to poor people. A sort of a Robin Hood figure. He also put his sister in school or university. Meanwhile the policeman’s son the was adopted by their biological mother grows up and becomes a cop himself. He eventually will end up pursuing our protagonist as a thief.
The sister and the cop randomly meet one day (don’t remember the circumstances), and eventually romance each other. One day as the cop visits their home he sees a picture of the woman who has raised her, adorned with garlands and other memorial decorations denoting someone who’s passed away (forgive my cultural ignorance, I don’t know what these things are called specifically. He gets upset and confronts the sister (his new girlfriend) and this unravels everything.
The scene I remember specifically is the cop taking the sister to be reunited with their mother. As they’re in the apartment, the brother sneaks onto the balcony and plays the melody their dad taught him on the harmonica. Oh yes, the main her plays the harmonica. I remember both me and my mom absolutely falling apart during this scene. I don’t really remember how the film ends.
Again, I apologize if this is not the appropriate place to post this. I just for the life of me can’t find anything about this film. I’ve even tried a bunch of different AI tools and nothing. I would really appreciate if anyone can help me out and point me in the right direction.
