When Ankur was released, critics were flabbergasted by the consummate skill demonstrated in a first film (although Benegal was what one writer called “a veteran novitiate,” having already made six hundred commercials for Indian television). Equally astonishing was the unvarnished, realistic, and subtly enraged story about a spineless landlord's relationship with his trusting servant. Banished by his father, college-bound Surya (Anant Nag) tends the family's rural property in Andhra Pradesh. He considers himself a progressive thinker, allowing his beguiling housekeeper Laxmi (Shabana Azmi) to prepare his food, though she is of a lesser caste. With the disgrace of her husband (Sadhu Meher), a deaf, unemployed potter, Laxmi, vulnerable and desperate, begins an affair with her employer. Once tested, the landlord's enlightened attitudes soon fall to privilege and arrogance. Benegal's first female heroine pays dearly for her transgression, but she is resolute and fiery nonetheless. And the “seedling” of the title? In the film's finale, a child lifts his hand in defiance-a manifesto, or just a first stone hurled.