Ankur (film) - Motif of The Seedling

Motif of The Seedling

In addition to being the title of the film, the seedling makes various appearances (both physically and metaphorically) in the film and is used as a motif.

• In the first scene, a village woman appears to offer the seedling of a fruit to the goddess while Lakshmi prays for a child. (As she offers the seedling, it seems that the first word she utters is pandlu which means "fruits" in Telugu.)
• The seedling may also represent the child that Lakshmi desires.
• Not long before Kishtayya is caught stealing toddy, there is a scene in which Lakshmi is cooking dinner. Suddenly, near the doorstep, she notices a pot containing a seedling. The implication is that Kishtayya has gone out to drink again and has left Lakshmi the seedling as compensation. She steps outside the doorstep, finds Kishtayya staggering home, and breaks the pot in front of him before returning inside.
• Metaphorically speaking, the seedling of popular rebellion sprouts at the end of the film (the villagers begin to protest the village's social hierarchy).