Kumar (Rishi Kapoor) son of Rana Uday Bhan Singh comes home after an absence of years. His childhood friendNeha hearing that he has become a good painter, insists for a portrait of herself. He paints but the result is devastating. He has painted someone else's face. A girl he has never seen before.
The girl of the portrait is RESHMA (Sridevi) a BANJARAN bright and happy but with a malady, which keeps her father the tribal chief anxious about her, specially on full moon nights when she wakes up, screaming having seen a certain dream. This has been haunting her since childhood.
The tribe moves on to Udaipur for the annual gathering of the tribes from all over and there is a function. KUMAR finds the girl of his painting dancing and RESHMA sees in KUMAR the man of her dreams, who had tormented her for years. It is instant love and they start meeting, yet they can't explain the engima of the portrait and the dream, and the mystery deepens when they see RESHMA'S portrait on the walls of an ancient haveli where they had gone go take refuge from a sand storm.
SARDAR the tribal chief is called to the Haveli and is blamed for his daughter's act of entangling a rich man's son. The angry SARDAR comes to the camp, scolds RESHMA harshly and then gives the orders for breaking the camp.
At the news, KUMAR cut all bonds with the family and goes after his love. They meet under the shadow of wrath of the tribe but are found out. Orders are given for KUMAR to be beaten to death but RESHMA saves him and takes him away from the furious and chasing BANJARAS.
The lovers take refuge once again in the old haveli and THAKUR BABA, the owner welcome them but the BANJARAS arrive intending to kill the lovers. Thakur also arrives with this men and guns and the situation is at explosion point. THAKUR BABA holds them back, telling that fifty years back he had committed the same crime of killing the lovers and is suffering till now.
And the he tells the tale of their previous birth.
A tale which shocks the BANJARAS.
A tale which shocks THAKUR.
A tale which shocks KUMAR and RESHMA also.
What is the tale?
See BANJARAN.