Pappayude Swantham Appoos 1992

Balachandran [Mammootty] had resorted to his work after being unable to cope with the death of his wife, Bhama [Shobana]. During the process, he unintentionally neglects his only son, Appu [Badusha Mohammed]. When Appu returns home from his boarding school during vacation, Balachandran promises him many things, but is unable to fulfill any of them as he is caught up with work. Meanwhile, Appu befriends his Nanny Meenakshi [Seena Dadi], much to the annoyance of Balachandran.

Meenakshi’s stepbrother Rudran [Raveendran], after realizing that his sister stays with Balachandran (who fired him for the murder of a colleague), forcefully takes her home. Appu becomes disappointed and turns rebellious, which culminates in Balachandran hitting him. He now realises that Bhama’s death was tough on his son too. He apologises and promises to bring back Meenakshi.

At Meenakshi’s house, her brother objects to Balachandran’s request of taking her back and he sees the way she is mistreated by her brother, leading to a fight between them, where Appu gets caught up. The attempt fails and they retreat to their summer house, deciding to let go of the thoughts of Meenakshi. Appu now gets to spend more time with his father as he had always hoped, although he misses Meenakshi. Balachandran notices that Appu’s nose is lightly bleeding and takes him to his close friend, Dr. Gopan [Suresh Gopi].

Gopan finds a serious internal haemorrhage in Appu’s head, the cause of which remains a mystery. He informs that an urgent surgery is their only hope and his Professor, a famous neurosurgeon, is called from Mumbai for the surgery. The cause of the bleeding puzzles the doctors. Balachandran soon recollects the fight and recalls Rudran being the one responsible for Appu’s condition. Enraged by the thought, he rushes to seek revenge, but is stopped by Gopan by shouting that if he really loves his son, he should stay with him till the operation, take care of him and pray for him. The depth of his neglect of his son, now becomes clear to him.

Realizing that this was probably the only time left with his son, he takes him out as he had promised, to fulfill Appu’s wish, on the eve of the scheduled operation. He even prays hoping that God would have pity upon him. Their journey takes them to Meenakshi’s house, who is to be married against her wishes. Another fight happens between the two and he manages to free Meenakshi from her abusive brother. He takes her with them for one final trip where Appu (moderately under sedation) hallucinates of his mother approaching him to take him to the other side. However, when Bhama notices Balachandran crying, she walks away without Appu, implying the likelihood of Appu’s survival.