Iyobinte Pusthakam

In 1900, Harrison, a British tea planter, arrives in the hill country of Munnar with grand schemes of expansion and control. He quickly notices a bright, capable worker among the laborers and names him Iyob, starting a mentor-protégé bond that will anchor the plantation's power. Iyob's rise begins to shape how authority operates on the estate.

Harrison's wife abandons him and returns to England, fracturing the domestic balance of life in Munnar. The household becomes more fragile, with loyalties and power dynamics tested by distance and desire. Iyob's position within the plantation begins to feel the strain of these changes.

Kazhali arrives as a figure of desire and disruption, unsettled by the social codes of the time. Harrison's curiosity grows as he grapples with loyalties, bedroom politics, and the boundaries of power. Her presence foreshadows dangerous shifts within the household's fragile order.

Harrison discovers Kazhali's connection with Thacho, a trusted servant, and issues a brutal order: Iyob must eliminate Thacho. The weight of this command presses on Iyob as he confronts the moral cost of power. Thacho confronts his fate, tumbling to his death from a cliff and sealing the moment in memory.

After Thacho's death, Harrison takes Kazhali as his mistress, and she becomes pregnant, shifting the balance of control within the household. Iyob's world treks deeper into shadow as he navigates the new dynamic and the loyalties it binds. The personal is now entangled with the political in stark ways.

World War I destabilizes Harrison's tea empire, weakening his grip on Munnar. He returns to Britain as the empire frays, and dies on the voyage to Cochin, leaving behind unfinished business and a changed landscape. The estate shifts as new priorities and resentments take root.

With Harrison gone, Iyob leverages a power of attorney to seize Harrison's assets and push Kazhali out of the household. The old order fractures further as Iyob tightens his grip on wealth and influence. Kazhali's standing dissolves as power moves behind the scenes.

Annamma, Kazhali's counterpart, secretly discovers that Kazhali already has a daughter, Martha, with a young man named Aloshy. She also takes Kazhali's youngest son, Aloshy, into her care, complicating family loyalties. The hidden connections begin to ripple through the generations.

A brutal act born of illness and pain sees Chemban's parents killed in a fire set by Aloshy's family, a deed that fractures loyalties and forces Aloshy to leave home as a child. The event reverberates through Iyob's lineage for years and foreshadows cycles of vengeance to come. Martha and Aloshy carry the burden of this legacy into adulthood.

As the decades progress, Aloshy leaves home and travels to Cochin to join the Royal Indian Navy, rising to officer status. He fights in battles tied to India's broader struggle for independence, hardening his sense of duty and justice. The sea becomes a crucible for his character.

The mutiny of 1946 brings Aloshy back to Munnar and unsettles the power dynamics as Dimitri and Ivan revive old resentments. Rahel, Thacho's daughter, emerges with a hunger for revenge and forms a dangerous pact with Angoor Rawther to advance her ambitions. Vengeance intertwines with political ambitions in a dangerous web.

Aloshy, aided by Chemban's family, confronts the conspirators on the forest edge, and one by one he defeats them. Rahel's plan collapses and she chooses suicide, marking the end of her arc and underscoring the toll of years of deceit. The confrontation tests loyalties and reshapes everyone involved.

The framing narrator returns as the Emergency is declared across India and many communist leaders are placed under preventive custody. In this national crisis, the film circles back to questions of power, memory, and autonomy at the level of ordinary lives. The personal revolutions have become inseparable from the political moment.

Aloshy and Martha survive the upheavals and choose to leave Munnar behind, seeking a life defined by honesty, compassion, and independence. Their departure signals a hopeful exit from cycles of greed and revenge that defined previous generations. The story closes on a note of quiet resilience and possibility.