The film portrays the sad reality of the Indian caste system and how it has singlehandedly destroyed our faith in humanity. The story revolves around a poor low-caste shoemender named Dukhiya who needs to get his daughter’s marriage fixed. So he goes to the high-caste Brahmin priest of the village to ask him to do so. The priest knows his powers and position and very conveniently misuses it. He agrees on the condition that Dukhiya does some of his jobs without charging any money. Left with no choice, Dukhiya agrees. He is made to cut huge logs of trees, sweep the priests house and do many odd jobs for no money in return. Dukhiya does all this, all day without even eating a morsel. Things turn to Dukhiya’s favor when the priest has to pay for his sins. The film is directed by Satyajit Ray and produced by Tej Bahadur and Balai Auddy. The music is composed by Satyajit Ray. The star cast includes Om Puri, Mohan Agashe and Smita Patil.
