Plot
Ankur is a complex film that analyzes human behaviour in general and heavily stresses characterisation (though the story is not fictional). The story revolves around two characters, Lakshmi and Surya.
Lakshmi (Shabana Azmi) lives in a village with her husband Kishtayya (Sadhu Meher), a deaf-mute alcoholic potter who communicates using gestures. The couple is poor and belongs to the lowly Dalit caste. Lakshmi attends a village festival and prays faithfully to the Goddess, stating that her only desire in life is to have a child.
Surya (Anant Nag), the son of the village landlord, had just finished his studies in the nearby city of Hyderabad and arrives back home. Surya's father (Khader Ali Beg) has a mistress named Kaushalya with whom he has an illegitimate son named Pratap. Surya's father claims to have given Kaushalya "the best land in the village", a gift which serves as both a token of his affection and also keeps Kaushalya quiet and satisfied. Surya is forced by his father into a child marriage with the under aged Saru (Priya Tendulkar), and begins to feel extremely sexually frustrated due to the fact that they cannot have sex until Saru reaches puberty.
Surya reluctantly takes over the administrative responsibilities of his share of land in the village. Alone, he moves into a different, older house, and Lakshmi and Kishtayya are sent as his servants. Not long after his arrival, he begins to exert his authority by introducing a number of different laws and measures, many of which are controversial among the village people. Almost immediately, Surya starts to form an attraction towards Lakshmi, and gives her the task of cooking his meals and serving him tea. This does not sit well with the village priest, a man who traditionally delivers food to the landowner, though at a higher price than Lakshmi asks.
Surya also hires Kishtayya to ride his bullock cart and run his errands. The following day, he has Kishtayya collect fertilizer from the landlord's house. Surya then uses Kishtayya's absence to flirt with Lakshmi, but she fails to reciprocate. In the meantime, the villagers have begun to gossip, and many (most notably the overseer, Police Officer Patel Sheikh Chand) believe that Surya has already slept with Lakshmi, and will act in the same way that his father did - try to conceal the scandal by giving his mistress a vast plot of land.
Kishtayya is caught stealing toddy, after which he is publicly humiliated, and he decides to leave the village due to the embarrassment. In his absence, Surya and Lakshmi sleep together. Some time later, Saru arrives at the village, in order to live with her husband. Saru does not approve of Lakshmi's presence, partly because Lakshmi is a Dalit and partly because Saru has heard the villagers' rumours. The next morning, Lakshmi has morning sickness, and Saru fires her, claiming that she is too sick to work.
Many days go by, and eventually Kishtayya returns, having cured himself of his alcoholism and made some money. Lakshmi is overwhelmed with a feeling of guilt, because she believes that she has betrayed her husband. On discovering Lakshmi's pregnancy, he salutes the village goddess at her temple, acknowledging that his wife's wish has been granted. He then decides to return to work and hopefully ride the bullock cart once again for Surya. Surya sees Kishtayya and mistakenly believes that Kishtayya is seeking revenge from him due to his infidelity with Lakshmi.
Surya orders three men to grab hold of Kishtayya and then proceeds to whip him with a rope used for lynching. The commotion attracts others, including Sheikh Chand and Pratap, to the scene, and Lakshmi rushes to defend her husband. She angrily curses Surya, then slowly returns home with Kishtayya. In the final scene, after the others have left, a young child throws a stone at Surya's glass window and runs away.
Characters
The plot is portrayed through the perspectives of Surya and Lakshmi. However, several other major characters and relatively minor characters also enhance the plot, each in his own way.
Surya
During his wedding, Surya glances first at Kaushalya and Pratap (who are sitting together), then at his own mother. Kaushalya is smiling because her son's wedding is to be held with Surya's, but Surya's mother appears relatively resigned. This is how he always saw marriage: the legitimate wife who suffers and the mistress who prospers.
Formerly an inhabitant of the city, he is not accustomed to the ways of the village. When Sheikh Chand expresses his hopes that the village will improve with Surya's presence, Surya's only reply is: "Yeah, well, they better." It is for this reason that Surya begins making changes as he deems fit.
In addition, Surya's father gives Pratap the "best" land in the village while Surya lives in an old house. As a result, Surya's second change in the village is to stop water from flowing into Pratap's and Kaushalya's fields. Kaushalya requests a reason from Surya, who points out that he is not her son. She responds, "I think of you that way" - a remark that makes Surya even more angry.
At least two days later, Pratap asks Surya to restore the water flow into his fields. When Surya refuses, Pratap threatens to report Surya's actions to their father. Surya initially dismisses this warning but is surprised when his father eventually does show up. Surya tries to defend his actions but is unsuccessful in doing so.
Before his father arrived (but after Pratap's visit), Surya had promised to take care of Lakshmi "forever." However, when he finds out that she is pregnant, he coaxes her to abort the child and refuses to take responsibility over the baby. She refuses to have an abortion because she always wanted a child, so Surya tells her to leave.
When Saru announces to Surya that she has caught Lakshmi stealing rice, he warns Lakshmi that he would have whipped her until she began bleeding if she were not a woman. Then he forbids her to come near his house again. Sheikh Chand requests Surya to consider Lakshmi's situation more thoroughly. Surya refuses while nervously wiping his hands.
Lakshmi
Lakshmi readily serves Surya as a servant, albeit at a low wage. That is what she is expected to do. However, the villagers did not realize that Surya would find her attractive and ask her to do additional chores.
She often appears to be worried: first about Kishtayya's alcoholism, then about where he has gone and how to live without him, and finally, about her loyalty to him.
It is clear that Lakshmi had an extended affair with Surya which seems to have started when she places her head on Surya's shoulder and the scene ends abruptly. After that there are several occasions when we see her dressing up or her lying next to Surya in bed.
Rajamma
Two days after Kishtayya's departure, Lakshmi witnesses (from a distance) two men dragging a village woman to the panchayat. The woman, Rajamma, refuses to go while the men accuse her of "dishonouring our brother." At the panchayat, the men reveal that she has committed adultery.
Her brothers-in-law argue that they have "two wells" and "two crops a year," maintaining that Rajamma could not want more. Rajamma explains that she wants a child (Lakshmi immediately realizes the similarity to her own desires). "My not having a child," she claims, "is because of him, my husband." She threatens suicide if she is forced to live with her husband, Yadgiri. When asked what his argument is, Yadgiri simply allows the judges to make a decision.
Before Rajamma expresses her views, the judges reprimand her for disgracing "your house, your family, and your village" by living with another man. At this point, Surya looks at Lakshmi, who already lives with him. The final verdict is that Rajamma must live with her husband and that Yadgiri's brothers should compensate if she is dissatisfied. After the trial, Rajamma commits suicide.
Lakshmi can identify closely with Rajamma. After Rajamma's suicide, she tells Surya that she wishes to return to Kishtayya. However, she realizes that this is impossible, and Surya promises to look after her.
Saru
As soon as Saru arrives, she bows before Surya, and Lakshmi garlands her. She immediately begins adding decorations to the house, namely a frame with the message "Good Luck" (in English) and a picture from her wedding. She also puts a garland around a framed picture of two Hindu deities, and prays to them. She knows about Surya's affair with Lakshmi, but she is puzzled when she sees Lakshmi cursing Surya since she does not know about Kishtayya.
Saru is rarely shown smiling until she sacks Lakshmi. In fact, the very first day, just as Surya is hanging up the wedding picture and Lakshmi is walking into her room, she points out Lakshmi's presence by silently staring at him and nodding slightly towards Lakshmi's room. When Surya tries to avoid discussion of the affair by criticizing how he looks in the picture, Saru does not speak to him and does not even allow him to touch her. That same night, she suggests that he sack Lakshmi; an unconcerned Surya tells her to do as she wishes.
Saru is a supporter of the caste system. When Lakshmi makes tea for the new couple, Surya accepts his glass. Saru, on the other hand, refuses hers before expressing her surprise at Surya (not realizing that he was the one who had Lakshmi make tea in the first place). She then refuses to have "anything she [Lakshmi] has touched."
Surya's father
If not for Surya's father, Surya would have been far less likely to meet Lakshmi, change the village's rhythm of life, and cause a revolt. However, he insists that Surya control his share of land. He does not believe in hiring others to administer the land for him because he thinks they will "get rich at our cost" and seize the land for themselves.
Kaushalya
Though she always smiles when speaking to Surya, Kaushalya does not like him very much. In his absence, she calls him a "spoiled brat" and a "mere boy." She always calls him her "son", as if his legitimate wife was nonexistent. She has become rich at Surya's mother's cost. Many, if not all, of these facts provoke Surya to try to put an end to her progress by cutting off the water supply.
Pratap
Pratap does not seem to consider Surya's feelings about Kaushalya very thoroughly. He also does not hesitate to enter his half-brother's house without permission. However, he is perhaps more enraged than any of the other villagers when he observes the injured Kishtayya at the end of the film. In that scene, he appears to stay and stare at Surya's window longer than any of the other villagers.
Sheikh Chand
Sheikh Chand (played by Agha Mohammed Hussain) is the Muslim overseer of the landlord's property. When Surya arrives in the village, he is initially hopeful that the new arrival might improve the village. These hopes seem to disappear within a day: Surya monopolizes the toddy trade and demands that Sheikh Chand guard the toddy. Sheikh Chand promises to punish anyone who steals the toddy severely, but once Surya leaves, the expression on his face changes from a smile to a straight face.
Kishtayya
Kishtayya is strong both physically and mentally. It is because of Kishtayya's physical strength that Surya is afraid of him, and his mental strength is demonstrated by his ability to overcome alcoholism (facilities for alcoholics were generally not available in India during the 1950s, particularly not in villages). Surya, however, exploits Kishtayya's weaknesses (i.e. the fact that Kishtayya is deaf-mute, alcoholic, poor, and a Dalit). Kishtayya's alcoholism allows Surya to humiliate him so that Surya can be closer to Lakshmi. Kishtayya's physical handicap prevents him from understanding what is happening when Surya proceeds to beat him in the end, and his poverty and caste do not permit him to complain about Surya's actions.
In spite of his weaknesses, Kishtayya uses his job as a cart-driver to drive willing schoolchildren to their homes at the end of the day.
The Boy
One of the characters is an anonymous boy who first appears in the scene in which Kishtayya steals toddy. The boy is the one who reports the theft to Surya; from that day until the end of the film, they seem to be on friendly terms (just before Kishtayya is beaten, the boy is shown flying kites with Surya). However, at the end of the film, he suddenly turns against Surya by breaking his window.
Production
The characters in Ankur often speak the Dakhani language, a variant of Standard Hindi-Urdu spoken in Southern India (particularly in the Hyderabad area). For example, when Surya asks Lakshmi where Kishtayya is, she responds, "Mereku naheeN maaluum" in Dakhani instead of "Mujhe naheeN maaluum" (I don't know) in Standard Hindi. (See Muslim culture of Hyderabad for more examples of Dakhani.)
Shabana Azmi, a fresh graduate from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune (FTII), wasn't the first choice for the role of Lakshmi. Benegal had earlier approached Waheeda Rehman, Anju Mahendru and Sharada, all of whom had refused his offer. Thereafter, he chose Shabana Azmi; he had to alter the script a bit to suit the younger-looking Lakshmi. [8]
Benegal was initially reluctant to hire Azmi, thinking she was a model and perhaps unsuitable for the role of a humble villager.
