Boothayyana Maga Ayyu (1974)

Based on Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar’s story about a village feud that brings two families to the brink of annihilation. Ayyu (Lokesh), son of the cruel and miserly landlord Boothayya (Shankar), goes to court against Gulla (Vishnuvardhan). In the prolonged court case, Gulla’s family is reduced to penury and he becomes Ayyu’s servant in order to repay debts. Ayyu has a sudden change of heart, but Gulla plots his revenge and mobilises the village to ransack Ayyu’s house. Ayyu, however, saves the villagers from the police, and Gulla, in his turn, saves Ayyu’s family from flood waters. The film successfully combined a realism-effect, reminiscent of the Kannada New Cinema, with the conventions of rural melodrama. The reform thrust is embodied by the buffalo sacrifice which Gulla defends but Ayyu tries to prevent and which becomes a symbol for the village’s caste antagonisms. Also remembered for the tremendously popular performance of Shankar as the evil Boothayya.