Auto Raja

<p>Raja is a simple auto driver who lives with his mother and sister in Bangalore. One day he meets Rani, who introduces herself as a poor girl who works for Bhaskar Rao in his house. After a few meetings they express their love for each other. While they are courting each other, Raja finds out that Rani is actually Bhavani, Bhaskar Rao’s only daughter and the heir to all his property. Raja who dislikes the rich for he believes them to be arrogant, faces humiliation at Bhavani’s birthday party by some of her guests. The discovery of Rani’s real identity makes Raja stay away from her. Eventually both reconcile. Elsewhere we come to know that Bhaskar Rao is behind Bhavani’s wealth. In order to achieve it, he has planned of getting her married to Psychiatrist Dr. Dinakar’s son Sudhakar, a womanizer with whom he would equally share her property. One day Bhavani stumbles upon an old woman – Mahalakshmi who recognizes Bhavani as her own daughter which confuses Bhavani. Upon narrating the incident to Bhaskar Rao, he tells Bhavani that he lost her mother and their previous house, all the photos in a fire accident. Bhavani tells this to Raja. He along with his friend manage to flee with Mahalakshmi from a mental hospital. Mahalakshmi then reveals that Bhaskar Rao is actually Bhavani’s uncle. He had planned to kill their family for their money but only Bhavani’s father died in the accident. Bhavani’s father had made a will saying that Bhavani’s husband would get all the property after her marriage. Until then Mahalakshmi would be managing it. If they died, the property would go to the trusts, orphanages assigned by Bhavani’s father. Due to this, Bhaskar Rao staged that Mahalakshmi has gone crazy after her husband’s death and sent her to his ally – Dr. Dinakar’s hospital and raised Bhavani as his daughter without revealing the truth to Bhavani. In order to exact revenge on Bhaskar, Dinakar and Sudhakar, Bhavani acts like she has agreed to marry Sudhakar. Later she makes Dr. Dinakar go crazy by staging Sudhakar’s death. Bhaskar Rao discovers everything and he along with Sudhakar, lock Bhavani and Mahalakshmi in their snake farm and force Bhavani to transfer her property to them. Raja comes to Bhavani and Mahalakshmi’ s rescue. The film ends with a happy note of Raja and Bhavani singing in an auto. The film’s soundtrack was composed by the famed duo with lyrics penned by . Rajan-Nagendra reused the tune of for the 1983 Telugu movie as . Shankar Nag, who acted in the role of Raja, the humble auto driver, is credited with bringing a certain dignity to the profession of auto rickshaw drivers. Four decades after the movie release too, Shankar Nag’s photo adorns auto rickshaws across Karnataka.</p>