Jeevan Dhara (1982)

A young woman's father has left, her brother is a drunk and the family depends entirely on her salary. She works, pays the bills and holds everyone together, while her own chance at love and marriage keeps slipping away because the family cannot do without her. A Hindi remake of K. Balachander's Tamil classic Aval Oru Thodar Kathai, Jeevan Dhara gives Rekha one of her strongest roles of the early eighties as a woman whose sacrifices go largely unnoticed. Raj Babbar and Amol Palekar co-star, and director T. Rama Rao, better known for masala hits, handles the family drama with restraint.