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A raw, seething parable about sadism and servitude, Adoor Gopalakrishnan's The Servile is unflinching in its depiction of the more-than-dysfunctional relationship between Patelar (Mammootty), a brutal village chief, and Thommie (Gopha Kumar), the servant trapped by his poverty into doing his master's bidding. Gopalakrishnan depicts their relationship as symbiotic, a metaphor for the misuse of political power. Patelar, not satisfied at being a simple bully, moves on to rape and murder in a kind of cruel experiment to see how far he can go, and how far he can push Thommie's loyalty. Thommie, accustomed to a life of poverty and servitude, can only go along with Patelar's madness, knowing that it will only end with his master's death. The film's wonderfully ambiguous ending raises the question of whether he will ever be able to shed his servile mindset. Brilliantly shot and acted (Mammootty and Kumar's performances are outstanding), this is one of Gopalakrishnan's most powerful films.