NIZHALKUTH is the only Malayalam cinema that has bagged a national award for the year 2002. Adoor Gopalkrishnan's film is set in the pre independence Travancore.

It's about an aging hangman Kaliyappan (Oduvil Unnikrishnan). This person who is appointed by the Maharaja has no clue about the people he is putting to death. He suddenly starts believing that he executed an innocent man.

Probably the only person with whom he is comfortable is his wife (Sukumari). He has a son, who is a believer of the Gandhian principles. Of his daughters, the eldest one is married, but is not very happy about her married life. The other is just 13 years old. She is confined to the four walls of home as she just reaches puberty.

Usually the hangman gets the rope used in each execution and hangs it in his puja room. He believes that if the strand of the rope is burnt the resulting ash can cure any disease. One day the hangman is suddenly summoned for another hanging. That evening he drinks heavily and listens to a chilling story of how a girl meets a flute player and then she is raped and then killed. He associates this story with his daughter and suffers a heart attack. But then someone has to do the task of hanging. The officials assign the task to his son.