In director Ismail Merchant's homage to a nearly extinct language, milquetoast professor Deven (Om Puri) is elated to land an assignment profiling the great Urdu poet Nur (Shashi Kapoor) for a scholarly journal. But when they meet, a dismayed Deven finds that Nur is hardly the man of his repute -- awash in liquor and lamenting his artistic decay to a bunch of sad-sack groupies. Puri and Kapoor deliver superb performances in this engaging opus.