Bhootayyana Maga Ayyu

Bhootayya is a ruthless zamindar of a small village, who mercilessly occupies the land of the villagers to whom he had lent money, when they fail to repay their debts. He is very shrewd and talks the villagers into building a dam across the river in the outskirts of the village, that is prone to floods. He gets hold of the fertile land on the banks of the river and builds a house for his son Ayyu. A few days later, Bhootayya falls ill and eventually dies. The villagers rejoice at his death and hold such a grudge against him that nobody turn up to perform his last rites leaving his son Ayyu to do it all alone.

The villagers remain wary of Ayyu, and the most rebellious among them is Gulla. He is very outspoken and tries to restrict Ayyu from being mean and merciless towards the villagers like his father. Gulla's father previously given a surety to Bhootayya for another villager's debt and is unable to repay the money. Ayyu promptly goes with his men to confiscate Gulla's house. In an ensuing argument, Gulla smacks Ayyu. Ayyu takes it seriously and files a police complaint against Gulla, who is then arrested by the police, and in the process begins a prolonged enmity between the two. Gulla also hires a lawyer and ends up spending all his family's property on the court case that he eventually loses. Unable to bear the consequences, his father commits suicide. Gulla holds Ayyu responsible for his father's death, and when he swears to kill him, his wife goes to the latter to warn him and also pleads him to forgive her husband. However, Ayyu behaves ruthlessly with her and swears to kill Gulla.

Ayyu's wife reminds him about his father's attitude towards the villagers and their reaction to his death. This makes Ayyu give a thought about his behaviour. Gulla's wife tries to kill herself by drowning herself in the river as she gets convinced that Ayyu will not spare her husband. Ayyu sees a woman drowning and being a distinguished swimmer saves her only to find that she is his enemy's wife. This incident has a lasting effect on Ayyu, who tries to end the feud. Ayyu clears all of Gulla's debts asking him to work for him in return. Gulla agrees and works sincerely to pay off the debts, but resents Ayyu's friendship.

During the village festival, the villagers plot to ransack Ayyu's house and the person who leads the pack is Gulla. They attack Ayyu's house at midnight, and set his house on fire. Ayyu, who is a changed person now, simply states this as an accident when the district police come to investigate the case. This incident begins to make an impact on the villagers to change their perceptions about Ayyu. With his house burned down, Ayyu goes with his family to live in the house by the river. One day Ayyu goes to the town, leaving behind his family. The village is flooded from a downpour and Ayyu's house is in danger. Ayyu's wife and kids try to come out of the house as the dam collapses and the water enters the house, flooding it completely. Gulla takes a raft and single-handedly sets out to rescue Ayyu's family. With much difficulty, he saves Ayyu's family and brings them to safety. Ayyu reaches the village and is shocked to see its plight, but is relieved to see that Gulla has rescued them. Ayyu hugs Gulla thereby ending their years of hatred and enmity. The villagers return Ayyu's belongings and wealth that was looted. They all celebrate the festival.

G. K. Venkatesh composed the soundtrack, and lyrics were written by Chi. Udaya Shankar and R. N. Jayagopal. The album consists of four tracks.[3]

The film, released on February 2, 1974, received a huge reception despite having a non-popular star cast. It went onto complete 100 days in three theatres in Bangalore alone. With a budget of 12 lakhs, it grossed over 45 lakhs at the box office. Film critics, Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen in their book Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, wrote, "the film is remembered for the tremendously popular performance of Shankar as the evil Boothayya."[9]

The film was the first Kannada colour film to be completely shot in outdoors. In 2017, Kamal Haasan included the film in his list of 70 favorite movies, stating "Though this was a commercial film, it was done on a scale that only big Hollywood directors would think of. So much hard work went into the film." Malenada Henna Mai Banna is one of the evergreen songs in the history of Kannada films.[10] The film also was the inspiration behind the title of the 2018 Kannada-language film named, Bhootayyana Mommaga Ayyu.[11]

• Bhootayyana Maga Ayyu at IMDb