The story deals with three generations of women: a grandmother, her two daughters-in-law and a grand-daughter. The film depicts individual episodes dealing with the various crises faced by each of them.
Hasina (Surekha Sikri-Rege) is an ailing matriarch in a joint family, which is run by her elder son Khaleel Ahmed (Lalit Tiwari) and his perpetually pregnant wife Najma (Alka Trivedi). Najma has two young sons with a history of miscarriages and children having died in infancy.
Hasina's second son Khurshid (Rajit Kapur) works in Meerut, but his conservative wife Afsana (Nandita Das) and their three children live in the same house. Hasina's daughter Ghazala (Shabana Azmi) comes to stay with her after being driven out by her husband Munir (Srivallabh Vyas), who blames her for not giving him a son.
Ghazala's teenage daughter Salma (Rajeshwari Sachdev) shuttles between her father's and her grandmother Hasina's house, depending on Munir's erratic moods.
Shyam Benegal has successfully tackled women-oriented issues in the past, but his latest venture HARI-BHARI pales in comparison. The fault lies in the fact that the story of all five principal characters gives the feeling of being deficient.
On the whole, HARI-BHARI is not among the best efforts of Shyam Benegal.