Nayi Neralu

Cast: Pavithra Lokesh, Ananya Kasaravalli, Ashwin, Sringeri Ramanna, Rameshwari Varma
Producer: Basanth Kumar Patil
Director: Girish Kasaravalli
Story: Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa
Dialogues: Gajanana Sharma
Music Director: Issac Thomas Kottakapally
Synopsis: Achchannaih (Sringeri Ramanna) and his wife Nagalaxmi (Rameshwari Varma) live with their widowed daughter-in-law Venkatalaxmi (Pavithra Lokesh) and grand daughter Rajalaxmi (Ananya) in a traditional society.Achchannaiah sets out to discover the truth when the news reaches him that in a distant town his son, who died eighteen years ago, has taken rebirth. He eventually brings the boy (Ashwin) home, which alters the lives of all concerned. The old Nagalaxmi for whom faith is essential, accepts him. The granddaughter, who swears by rationality, views it as a foul play, in fact even as a conspiracy.
The widowed Venkatalaxmi, after an initial resistance, sees in the boy an opportunity to fulfill all her thwarted elemental desires and to escape the trauma of widowhood. All the tenets and canons of religious beliefs are used by Nagalaxmi to sustain her faith, while Rajalaxmi, her granddaughter takes recourse to the law and the court. Resisting all these Venkatalaxmi swears by her lived experience. Caught between the grandmother and daughter Venkatalaxmi's life becomes a rudderless boat. But she evolves considerably when she balances her existential self and emotional being. It remains an essential question as to what constitutes the actual truth- whether it is the site of conflict that Rajalaxmi embraces or the mode of negotiations that Venkatalaxmi adopts. The film attempts to capture the inversions of social values held by three different generations.
In fact it is a dog that follows Yudhishtira till the end in the Swargarohana Parva' of Mahabharata. The title 'In the shadow of the dog' refers to the dog symbolically representing an individual's good deeds and bad acts.