Kishunsah is an elderly man who decides to divide his property among his sons when conflicts escalate within his extended family. Kishunsah goes to live with the youngest son, Ramsharan, who tries to provide a respectable retirement for his father, but problems at home with a manipulative wife and sassy sons prove to be too much. Kishunsah ends up receiving little respect and is eventually moved from the courtyard front room to a converted storage room in the back. In deteriorated health and spirits, Kishunsah decides to take a pilgrimage to a holy place, leaving his guilt-ridden family behind. The unexpected conclusion leaves the viewer with hope for the family. In tackling the universal condition of old age, The Weight of Cotton stands apart from other big budget spectacle films of India with its human scale, low key mood and realistic setting in the depiction of family and village life, and in the sympathetic portrayal of the elderly. We see that disregard for one′s parents and for the elderly is not just a problem of modernization, as is commonly depicted. The title refers to the metaphor that old age is like a bale of cotton - apparently weightless, but, every passing moment of time makes this bale of cotton more and more saturated and it soon becomes so heavy that everyone wants to throw it off.