Madhavan (Mammootty), a simple village man who in childhood got bitten by the film bug, threw up his studies and finally ends up as 'Operator' Madhavan, who tours the countryside with his 16 mm film projector and shows films at temple festivals and other public functions. Madhavan's family consist of his wife (Padmapriya) and a daughter (Sanusha). (Innocent (actor)) enacts the role of a priest. Madhavan comes across a six-year-old boy (Yash) who is displaced from his native Gujarat and separated from his family after the devastating earthquake. This boy was taken into a gang of beggars from where he manages to escape. Madhavan takes the boy home and cares for him, just like a son. He and his Family takes a fondness for the boy, later finding out that legally he cannot adopt the boy. The boy is taken away from Madhavan to a juvenile home and allegations of ill treatment is charged on Madhavan, but soon dismissed. The issue gets media coverage. Madhavan then goes to Gujarat with the boy in hopes of finding his family or adopting him. At the disaster camp in Gujarat Madhavan understands that the boys relatives are all most probably dead but due to legal hurdles, the boy must stay on in the hope that his real parents might be traced. Madhavan dejected has to return to his family in Kerala.