Social drama realistically traces the trials and travails in the life of sincere men from impoverished backgrounds, who find themselves unable to get employment due to the stranglehold of powerful trade unions in Kerala.
Direction
Ratnam's first film already knows where to put the camera.
Acting
Mohanlal before he became THE Mohanlal — hungry and real.
Writing
No heroes, just people choosing between bad and worse.
Director
Mani Ratnam
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Unaru captures 1980s Kerala's communist labor politics with documentary ferocity — unions were gods and monsters simultaneously.
Ratnam made this after his Kannada debut flopped, fighting producers who wanted songs and fights. He refused. The film bombed anyway — but critics remembered.
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