In rural India an unlikely friendship develops between a lonely young boy studying at a religious school and the headmaster’s widowed daughter. He is bullied by his schoolmates, she is concealing a forbidden relationship; their bond offers much-needed refuge from the cruel orthodoxy of village life.
Kasaravalli’s spare, haunting drama reveals how rigid codes of caste and ritual purity lead to devastating consequences. Weaving together uncompromising political and social critique with a deeply affecting coming-of-age tale, the film is recognised as a key work of Indian Parallel Cinema.