A young multi-talented dancer is poverty stricken and as a principled person he does not want to compromise on his ethics for commercial dancing. A wealthy woman recognizes this talent and provides him with an opportunity to showcase his art.
The film begins with Mathayi, who was imprisoned for killing his pregnant sister, being released from jail. He goes back to his house, where he recalls the incident of his sister's death and his father's mourning face.
A father and son are separated when their enemy tries to steal a pair of swords that hold a map to the family treasure. Later, his enemy tries to use his son to get the second sword too.
Mysore facilitates the marriage between two lovers, Kallesh and Jaya. When differences between them threaten their relationship, he has to intervene yet again and bring them to their senses.
Rajasekhara and Sumi love each other and get married without their parents' consent. However, their marriage suffers when Rajasekhara becomes more focused on his work.
Mohan and his wife, Leela, are the leading lawyers. Trouble brews in their marital life and careers when Mohan defends his past lover who murdered her husband.
Murli, a stylish and handsome young man, is forced by his father to get married to Arukani, a village girl. To escape from his wife and father, he takes a job transfer to Bangalore, where he falls in love with Julie and gets married. Murli does not reveal his past to Julie, however, Arukani ends up at his house in Bangalore.
A police officer attempts to change a dacoit into a good person and also gets him married to a beautiful village girl. However, circumstances do not let the changed man live happily.
Inspired by 'The Count of Monte Cristo', Padayottam was the first Indian movie to be shot in 70mm format. Prince Udayan (Nazir) is the successor to the Kolathiri kingdom. He is betrayed by his cousin Devan (Madhu) which forces him to go into exile. Years later Udayan returns to Kolathiri to take his revenge.
Raghu, Ramankutty, Vasu, Santhosh and Johny are best friends. Johny is the son of a rich entrepreneur who begs for affection and Raghu, is happy-go-lucky youth. Santhosh is a jobless youth who is looking for a job while Ramankutty wants to enter in the cinema field. Vasu is a caring brother who is determined to work hard and get his sisters married. Their life takes a turn when Prabha arrives in their locality. Prabha comes there for her heart transplantation. Prabha becomes their friends while the five youth fall in love with her. What transpires later forms the crux of the story.
Bhanu Chandra, a forest officer by profession falls in love with Tulasi, a tribal girl. He later gets arrested when police mistakenly identify him as a Naxalite and he subsequently receives life imprisonment. After he is released from jail, he hopes that Tulasi still waits for him despite all the years left behind them.
Aswathy decides to marry her childhood friend Raju, who was a mentally ill patient. But her life takes a turn when he starts behaving in a peculiar way.
The movie explores the nuance of Oedipus Complex. The heroine, a popular theatre artist, falls in love with a rich, young man. They eventually get married and beget a child. But the heroine is bored of married life and wants to dabble in acting. The husband refuses and leaves the town with his child. The heroine gets a lucky break in cinema and becomes a household name. Years later, as fate had it, a young man falls in love with the heroine and she reciprocates his love, but as a mother. She always gives him affection and loves like a mother. She encounters her ex-husband and pleads him to show her son just for once. But as fate has it doesn t happen, and she goes in deep depression and commits suicide, too late for the young lover who realizes that he had fallen in love with his own mother.