Landmark Films from the NFAI Collection - Ankur (1974)

Film: Ankur
Language : Hindi
Year :1974
Director : Shyam Benegal
Cast : Shabana Azmi, Sadhu Meher, Anant Nag, Priya Tendulkar, Agha Mohammed Hussain
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Introduction :

Surya is the son of an average zamindar. His child bride has not yet come to live with him. Against his will, his father sends him to the village to manage the estates. He is insensitive, arrogant. His days are filled with boredom. He flies kites and eyes Laxmi, the low-caste girl who looks after the farmhouse. Laxmi is devoted to her deaf-mute husband, Kishtya. Kishtya is an unemployed potter.
Surya seduces her and makes her pregnant. Her deaf-mute husband returns home and offers her the few rupees he earned. He is happy in the mistaken belief that Laxmi is carrying his child. He picks up his staff and makes for the farmhouse to ask his Master to give him a job. Thinking that Kishtya has come to kill him, Surya flogs the deaf-mute to unconsciousness. Laxmi suddenly becomes defiant and rebellious and lashes out at the Master ...
The last shot is memorable. Surya goes inside the house, the servants gathered around the deaf-mute scatter. A hysterical Laxmi helps the husband get up and walks him back to the hut. And then a village urchin, who helped the Master fly kites, picks up a stone and hurls it at the window of the farmhouse. The glass is smashed. The boy runs for his life