Mutthina Haara

Synopsis

Achchappa (Vishnuvardhan) is a soldier from Madikeri who is injured while the Second World War is raging. In the hospital, he meets an Army nurse, Anu (Suhasini) who is also from Coorg. After the war, both get married in Madikeri. Achchappa goes back to the Army and his wife lives with her in-laws. She gives birth to a son, but she becomes barren soon after. The son is named Viraj, but Achappa hasn’t seen him since he hasn’t had a break from the Army. India becomes independent and partitioned. Achchappa is stationed on India’s border in Rajasthan. Meanwhile Viraj is a couple of years old and Achchappa longs to see him. So, his wife and son travel to meet and live with him. But, tension breaks between India and Pakistan along the border. Viraj becomes a casualty even before his father gets to see him. Achchappa and Anu are aggrieved; she becomes an Army nurse again. Despite her insistence, Achchappa refuses to remarry for the sake of having another child. They remain faithful to each other and live on as years pass by. Achchappa becomes an Army Major and trains young army men in the Army Institute of Dehradun. One day his aged parents from Madikeri come to live with him. They have been kept in the dark about Viraj’s death and so they long to see their grandchild. When they come to know the truth, his unwell mother can’t bear the shock and dies. Meanwhile, the Indo-China War breaks out and Achchappa is sent to the border with his troop. Him and his troop are captured by the Chinese and tortured. But Achchappa remains strong and loyal to the country and doesn’t reveal what his Chinese interrogators want. In his troop is a young promising soldier (Ram Kumar) whom Achchappa treats as his son. They manage to escape into the Indian border but are mortally wounded. Achchappa dies there while his protégé dies in the army hospital. Achappa’s corpse has a war hero’s funeral honored by the country, but in the end Anu loses her sanity.