 Surya, the son of a wealthy landowner, returns home from the city after graduating from school and is expected by his father to get married and take over a piece of land. He settles in not without conflict with the other people from the village, whose traditions he does not share. He uses his position to begin a love affair with Laxmi, who is unhappily married to a deaf-mute drunk. When Laxmi is left by her husband, Surya invites her to live at his house, much to the disdain of everybody else, who see this as a breach of the caste system. Their love affair ends abruptly when Surya s wife arrives. Rather than keeping to his promises, Surya drives Laxmi out of the house; when it turns out that she is pregnant, she suddenly becomes a threat that must be disposed of. The final scene of this movie raised many eyebrows upon its release in 1973, as it was seen as a disquieting symbol of rebellion against the country s social structures. Shabana Azmi s compelling performance as Laxmi laid the foundation for her becoming one of the great actresses of the independent Indian cinema of the 1970s and 80s.