Naagarahaavu

The story begins with Ramachari being caught in a classroom while trying to copy in an examination. The college principal (Loknath) suspends him for copying in the exam. Ramachari is humiliated and angry at this action and later at night Ramachari throws stones at the principal's house and when the principal wakes up and comes out of his house, Ramachari ties the half-naked principal to a pole and runs away satisfied.

Then the plot focuses on Ramachari's home. Ramachari is brought up in a pious and religious Brahmin environment by his parents Madhwacharya and Sonabai. His father doesn't like him because he is unpopular in the whole town as a ruffian. His mother is worried about his future. One person who truly (seems to) understand Ramachari is his primary school teacher, Chamayya (K.S.Ashwath) master. Ramachari finds the company of his primary school teacher Chamayya and his wife Tunga (Leelavathi), more interesting than that of his parents and considers them as his parents. Ramachari has very great regards for his Chamayya master even though he is no longer his academic teacher and would do whatever his teacher would say without thinking.

The next part of the story is about the two women Almelu (Aarathi) and Margaret (Shubha) who come into Ramachari's life and how the teacher Chamayya influences Ramachari's decisions in these relationships. The teacher tries to bring Ramachari in the "conventional way of life", but he errs and Ramachari's life is destroyed.

In college, Ramachari hangs out with Varada (Shivaram) and other friends. Varada has a very beautiful sister named Almelu. Almelu's beauty has maddened a neighbourhood hooligan, Jaleela (Ambareesh) who keeps stalking her. Varada wants to put an end to this eve-teasing but he is a timid, pusillanimous person. He asks Ramachari for help. Ramachari agrees based on the condition that he should marry Almelu. Ramachari is tempted and he fixes Jaleela and drives him away out of Almelu's life. Almelu and Ramachari fall in love.

At this point, when Almelu and Ramachari are truly in love, Almelu's marriage is fixed with a boy of her caste. When Almelu tries to refuse the proposal by saying she is in love with Ramachari and asks for Varada's support, Varada says that he never gave Ramachari any promise and deceives Ramachari.

At this point, the teacher Chamayya intervenes in Ramachari's life and says to give up hope on Almelu. He convinces Ramachari by making him understand that sacrifice is a greater act than selfish love.

Ramachari, confused, agrees to his teacher and sacrifices his love.

Years later, Ramachari meets her in a five-star hotel as a prostitute. Almelu's husband sold her into flesh trade and she had turned into a prostitute.

The second lady in Ramachari's life is Margaret, a peppy Christian girl who has moved into the town who has young men like Tukaram (Dheerendra Gopal) swaying to her tunes. Ramachari kisses Margaret on an ego tussle between the two and they soon fall in love. However, due to the intense pressure in the society which denounces the marriage between a Brahmin boy and a Christian girl, they decide to run away. Once again the teacher Chamayya tries to stop Ramachari and says that by sacrificing his love for Margaret, he will be holding his religion and tradition before love. But this time, Ramachari confronts his teacher and says that he won't budge because the last time he sacrificed his love for Almelu, it went horribly wrong and Almelu was a high society prostitute. Chamayya master, accused now of ruining Almelu's life, realizes (perhaps for the first time) that Ramachari was right and he was wrong.

The movie ends with Chamayya master falling to his death from the hill when Ramachari pushes him in a fit of rage after his master tells him, "if you want to marry her, you have to witness my death before it." He will not have any motive to kill his master, but it shows his respect for his master since he doesn't want to hear about his master's death. Ramachari, shocked by this incident asks Margaret to join him in a bid to accompany his beloved teacher in death, to which she happily agrees. They both commit suicide by jumping off a cliff.

Ramachari, the hero is compared to a King Cobra. Dangerous, yet respected but a misfit in the society.

Chamayya Meshtru (K. S. Ashwath) is the ever-supportive guardian of Ramachari who treats him as his own son. He is supposed be the only person able to control and have an influence over Ramachari. However, his desire to see Ramachari tread the traditional path leads to conflicts with Ramachari and ultimately his own death as well as Ramachari's. The movie focuses on a beautiful relationship with the teacher and student. In one emotional scene, Chamayya Meshtru accuses Ramachari of raping Almelu and then hits him with his walking stick, only to find out from Ramachari that it was a false allegation. The scene concludes with Ramachari tearfully saying, "Betha murdhogide, repairy madi tandkodteeni" and Chamayya Meshtru helplessly regretting his haste is a classic scene.

Jaleela (Ambarish) is the rowdy young man who teases Almelu every time she goes to college. He teases her by singing the then-popular hit " Mere sapnon ki Rani kab Ayegi tu". Almelu is fed up with this daily harassment and complains to her brother Varda. Varda tries to confront Jaleela, but soon gets bullied over by Jaleela and retreats in haste. He then turns towards Ramachari asking him to help his sister. In a pivotal scene, Ramachari questions Varda as to why he should help his sister to which Varda promises to have Ramachari and Almelu married if Ramachari helps get rid of Jaleela the nuisance. This spurs on Ramachari who takes on Jaleela in a thrilling fight scene with Jaleela. The stakes of the fight is raised by the pailwan of the town who promises the winner a garland. After an intense fight, Ramachari wins and is rewarded with the promised garland. Jaleela asks for forgiveness and limps away even as Varda extracts his own little revenge.

Varda (Shivaram)is an Iyengar friend of the Madhwa Ramachari. He is usually known to be trying to find a speciality in someone and often uses that word in his dialogues. He is a key character who promises Almelu's hand in marriage to Ramachari, only to flip when he finds out that Ramachari is serious. He accuses Ramachari of raping Almelu. Ultimately, this results in Chamayya Meshtru having to intervene and have Almelu marry a husband of the choice of her parents.

Thungamma (Leelavathi) is the wife of Chamayya meshtru. She is the ever doting foster mom of Ramachari. Ramachari adores her very much. Their affection is well depicted when Ramachari enters Thungamma's house after having committed yet another act of defiance. This time he would have tied his college principal to a pole. This is noticed by Thungamma and Chamayya meshtru puts the principal out of his misery and eventually has Ramachari apologizing to the principal. After this, Ramachari comes over to Thugamma's house where he is greeted by an angry Thumgamma. Eventually Ramachari also pretends to get angry and is pampered by Thungamma depicting their mother-son equation.