BANADA NERALU

A part of 39th International Film Festival of India - Film BANADA NERALU

Amaresh, a smalltime civil contractor under pressure from money lenders to repay debts, decides to try his luck by growing commercial crops in his wife’s village. For that, however, he must cut down old trees growing on the land. He seeks the horticulture department’s advice and negotiates with a sawmill willing to fell the trees.

But when the mill workers come Banavva, the former landowner’s widow, refuses to let them cut the trees, saying she has sold the land but not the trees! This upsets Amaresh who has borrowed from the bank to develop the land.

To make her see reason Amaresh requests a meeting of the village elders. They instruct Banavva to return the money and retain her land. The poor widow fails to do so. To retain the trees she attempts suicide: first she threatens to jump off a high wall, next she jumps into a well. Both times she survives and becomes the laughing stock of the village. Amaresh is under pressure from the bank as well as the sawmill owner. His rivals in the village have complained to local authorities of encroachment, and he is falling in the eyes of his mother-in-law. So he procures the forest department’s permission to cut the trees.

Banavva now tries to hang herself in public. A stunned Amaresh rescues her but finds that Banavva has lost her voice, and rushes her to the city hospital. During this human interaction he learns about her background and is transformed.

But the sawmill owner needs the trees, so he arrives with police protection to fell them. The village community draws together and succeeds in protecting the trees.

The womenfolk celebrate this in Banavva’s field. While people sing and play, Banavva dies a silent death. Her body is put to rest under a tree planted by her, and Amaresh plants another on her grave.