Nilkantha, an alcoholic frustrated intellectual, suddenly finds himself out of the street. His wife, Durga has suffered for his waywardness and his love for the bottle, finally leaves him, taking their son with. Nachiketa, a young, unemployed engineer, stays behind to look after him. Bangbala, a young refugee form Bangladesh comes into the empty house looking for shelter. While they sit musing on a part bench, they are joined by Jagannath, a penniless Sanskrit teacher. The strange foursome start on their extraordinary journey to Kanchanpur, Nilkanth's wife's new home. They along with Panchanan Ustad, an exponent of the chhau dance witness a Chhau performance of goddess Durga destroying a demon. The group walks into a confrontation between the tribals and the landlord. The landlord shoots in panic and kills Jagannath. On their way to Nilkanth's wife Durga's place, they have to pass through a sal forest, where hidden eyes watch their progress. The forest is a hideout for rebellious extremists, the naxalites. Durga is not happy to see Nilkantha and insists that Nilkantha must leave. Nilkantha requests Durga to come early in the morning with some food to the Sal forest, where they will be spending the night and wanted to see his son's face in the first rays of the sun. Dawn breaks. Durga comes with her son into the forest. Suddenly a police party attacks the Naxalites. In the crossfire, Nilkantha is hit by a bullet and dies. The Naxalites lie scattered, killed by police bullets. The police party carries Nilkantha's body out of the forest, where silence descends once again. more»

A fisherman, Kishore, marries a young girl accidentally when he visits a nearby village. After their wedding night, Kishore's young bride is kidnapped on the river. On losing his wife, Kishore becomes mad. Meanwhile, his young bride fights with the bandits, jumps into the river and is saved by some villagers. Unfortunately, the young bride knows nothing about her husband, she doesn't even know her husband's name. The only thing she remembers is the name of the village Kishore belongs to. Ten years later, she attempts to find Kishore with their son. Some residents of Kishore's village refuse to share food with her and her son because of threat of starvation. A young widow Basanthi helps the mother and child. Later it is turns out that Kishore and Basanthi were childhood lovers . Director Ghatak appears in the film as a boatman, and Basanti's story is the first of several melodramatic tales. more»

The film tells the story of Ishwar Chakraborty (Abhi Bhattacharya), a Hindu refugee from East Pakistan after the 1947 partition of India. He goes to West Bengal with his little sister Sita (Indrani Chakrabarty) where he tries to start a new life. In a refugee camp, they see the abduction of a low-caste woman and Ishwar takes her little son Abhiram (Sriman Tarun) with him. He gets a job at a factory in the province, near the river Subarnarekha. After completing his study when Abhiram is asked to go to Germany for his studies, he (Satindra Bhattacharya) and Sita (Madhabi Mukherjee) discover that they are in love. But at this moment, Ishwar's fear of prejudice emerges, as he does not want his sister, a Brahmin, to marry a lower caste boy. During Sita's wedding with another man, the girl and Abhiram elope and go to Calcutta. Ishwar is angry and heartbroken. Sita and Abhiram live in the slums of Calcutta and try to make ends meet. They have a little son (Sriman Ashok Bhattacharya). One day, Abhiram gets a new job as a bus driver, but this leads to tragedy: when he accidentally hits and kills a little girl, he is lynched by the crowd. In her desperate situation, Sita is forced to think about taking up prostitution. In the meantime, Ishwar is living a lonely and sad life in the province. When his old time friend Haraprasad (Bijon Bhattacharya) comes to visit him, they decide to go to Calcutta on a binge drinking tour. They finally end up in a brothel, both completely drunk. When Ishwar staggers into one of the bedchambers, he is faced... with his own sister, whose first "client" he should become. Sita immediately recognizes him and rather cuts her own throat than submit to incest. She dies. When Ishwar realizes what has happened, he breaks down. At the end of the film, the now completely broken Ishwar meets Sita's little son, who is now his closest relative. He brightens up and decides to take the little boy into his house. more»