The key figure is Khan Bahadur Pookkoya Thangal of the rich Arakkal family whose character is a rare mixture of dignity, benevolence and insatiable lust.

[2] In his autobiography Nashtajathakam, Kunjabdulla recalls that the seeds of Smarakasilakal were sown at a screening of Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali in Aligarh.

The novel was conceived on a large canvas and developed from the images he had formed of his hometown and its people as a child in pre-independent Malabar.

It is the story of a feudal lord Khan Bahadur Pookkoya Thangal of the rich Arakkal family who could build a world of his own in his village.

Thangal's daughter Pookunjeebi is sacrificed at the altar of wealth; his adopted son Kunjali burning for justice seems to place his trust on revolution as the only remedy for the ills that afflict society.