| Director | Goutam Ghose, Ulrike Filgers |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 141 min |
| Country | India |
The film of exploitation in rural Bihar, in which a landlord (Utpal Dutt)’s men wreck a village by giving villagers lesser remuneration than what they should actually get as per government law. A local school teacher (Anil Chatterjee) fights for the deceived lower caste villagers and helps one of them - Ram Naresh (Om Puri) to become the Panchayat pradhan.
Later on the benevolent schoolmaster (Anil Chatterjee), the progressive force in the village, was killed by landlord's men. The labourer Naurangia (Naseeruddin Shah) breaks with a tradition to passive resistance and retaliates by killing the landlord's brother Hari Singh (Mohan Agashe). Naurangia and his pregnant wife Rama (Shabana Azmi) become fugitives from justice and flee from the village as per Naurangia's parent's advice. They eventually moved to Calcutta to find for a job in Nadia Jute mill, Naihati but due to the deteriorating condition of jute mills Naurangia fails to get a job there and struggles for survival.
After many efforts to find sustenance elsewhere, the two decide to return home. To earn the fare, they agree to drive the herd of pigs through the river, causing the pregnant Rama to believe she has lost her baby (They already lost their first child at age 3 due to a fall into the well). But they have to swim across a wide, swiftly flowing river Ganga, in which they nearly drown before reaching safety. At the end of the film, Naurangia puts his ear to her belly and listens to the heartbeat of the unborn baby.