Most Indians are familiar with the legend of Ekalavya, the tribal boy who wanted to learn the art of archery from Drona, the teacher of the Kuru princes( the pandavas & Kauravas). He was turned away as Drona only taught kshatriya royalty. The rejected boy went deep into the forest, made a statue of his teacher and started practicing in the earnest.. Over time he became very good at archery, so much that once when the royal party was hunting in the forest, he silenced their dog with 7 arrows shot simultaneously in the dog’s mouth which didn’t hurt it at all.
Drona was intrigued and amazed when he discovered the proficient archer was even better than Arjuna, his favorite student.
He extracted out of the boy a heavy and cruel fee for ‘being his teacher’.. he asked to be given the thumb of his right hand.
There are many ideas put forth to justify the rationale behind this terrible fee.. However the point of relevance to the story of the film was that Ekalavya was so bound by his duty to his teacher that he unhesitatingly cut off his thumb for his guru. Similarly the Ekalavya of the film is unswerving in his adherence to long held traditions, those which he considers his dharma to uphold.

The crux of the story is a meditation on what really constitutes Dharma… a servile adherence to tradition or an honest & heartfelt expression of righteousness.