Bhumika is touted as the first Indian film based on a woman's autobiography, that woman being the sublimely scandalous Hansa Wadkar, an actress of the forties. According to critic Derek Malcolm, Wadkar was “the Joan Crawford of the Marathi scene, going through men by the dozen and bottles by the thousand.” Benegal delightfully recreates those glorious days of Bombay filmmaking with Wadkar, here dubbed Usha, played by the quietly stormy Smita Patil. At age fourteen, Usha rises above her sorry lot beside a stern mother to become a popular actress, offered entrée into a world of illusory glamour and celebrity. But she is a restless spirit, unsettled by her need to find some semblance of real happiness. Benegal counterpoints Usha's unsatisfying affairs with men with glimpses of her movies, drawing parallels between the disappointments of real-world romance and the fantasies of film. In one unforgettable scene, she is forced to swear fidelity: “I take the oath,” Usha exclaims, then adds under her breath, “to do exactly as I please.”