Mannu (1978)

George returned to the idiom of his mentor, Kariat, in this strident feudal melodrama of greed and superstition. The poor Damu (Soman) gets into a legal fight, supported by a CPI activist (Bhaskaran), with the rapacious landlord Krishnan Nair (Abraham) over tenancy rights. The matter takes a religious turn when the landlord announces his decision to build a temple on Damu’s land. Damu kills the landlord and goes into hiding. The film shifts the moral dilemma to the son of the landlord (Sukumaran), a patriotic army officer who has to decide whether to continue the ancestral dispute: the officer makes peace with Damu and his wife (Sharada).