Market (2003 film)

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Market is a 2003 Indian crime film directed by Jay Prakash and led by Manisha Koirala. The story follows Muskaan Bano, a young woman from a small village in Andhra Pradesh who is married off to a wealthy Arab man by greedy parents. The marriage ends quickly in divorce, and her father commits suicide after the humiliation. A lengthy legal battle to seek justice fails when the husband’s lawyer bribes the judge, and he is acquitted. Crushed by this betrayal, Muskaan ends up in Hyderabad’s Mehndi Bazaar, the red-light district, where she becomes a prostitute.

After the district is shut down, she moves to Mumbai. A compassionate police officer named Sawant helps her and introduces her to Juicy, a pimp who runs a network of high-class escorts. Juicy trains her and renames her Mallika, with the help of Lisa and Isha, turning her into a sought-after call girl. As Mallika, she meets Babloo, a criminal who is drawn to her, though love isn’t her goal. She witnesses Isha’s murder, and later she and Lisa are summoned to Dubai by the powerful don Yashwant Anna, setting the stage for a confrontation with her ex-husband. This fuels Mallika’s longing for revenge and a fight for survival and justice.

Market opened with a decent response and became a surprise success of the year, described as a semihit at the box office. Budget: ₹2 crore. Box office: about ₹4.27 crore. Running time: 160 minutes. Language: Hindi. Country: India.