Laxmi (Sridevi) loses her memory in an accident, and walks out of the hospital, right into a brothel. Somu (Kamal Haasan) rescues her and brings her to his house. Slowly, he gets attached to her and gets her treated.

Both Sridevi and Kamal Haasan's performances are so good that you cry often.

Interestingly, Laxmi's role was first offered to Dimple Kapadia, who did not take it up because she was busy with her comeback film, Ramesh Sippy's Saagar.

Sadma was the first serious adult role that Sridevi did (she had done over 60 movies as a child artiste). The film was first made in Tamil, Moondram Pirai. It was later dubbed into Hindi, when it became a hit.

Both actors won National Awards for the Tamil version.