"The owner of a tile factory in Kerala, Southern India, is found murdered one day in 1955. A workers' activist, Sreedharan, becomes a prime suspect and is forced to go underground. During the ten years of his disappearance, a period of political factionalism in Kerala, the fugitive's name comes to symbolize a perhaps glorious struggle of the past. But the legend returns in person one night, aged and worn-out. The workers look again to Sreedharan for guidance, and the exhausted, disillusioned man is brought face to face with the myth that has replaced him. Adoor Gopalakrishnan's most overtly political film continues the exploration of social conformity begun in his much-praised Swayamvaram (1972). 'Gopalakrishnan has laid bare the realities of village society, a reality which has hitherto lain buried under the tinsel of commercial cinema' (Darryl d'Monte, The Guardian). (Gopalakrishnan's 1977 film Ascent (Kodiyettam) was shown at PFA in February 1982.)" Jeff Wagner Historical note: In 1957 the Communist Party was voted into power in Kerala and it remained the ruling party for a short period. In 1964 the Party was split in two, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party (Marxist) of India. Later many extremist splinter groups emerged.