Chandni Bar

If there's one director who's never let traditional rules get in the way of his creative direction it's Madhur Bhandarkar. A strong advocate and believer of female-centric plots, he's been responsible for a vast variety of such films and 2001's Chandni Bar is a classic example of the same. 

It tells the emotional story of a sex worker, played by Tabu, and her fight to protect her own children, and give them a better life than she could give herself. It was moving to say the least and Tabu walked away with the national awards for Best Actress.