The movie tells the story of two brothers, Raja and Ravi, who follow different career paths: Raja is a smuggler and Ravi the policeman who is asked to hunt Raja down. Raja (Rajinikanth) and Ravi (Suman) are the sons of a trade unionist (AVM Rajan), who was defeated and disgraced by the management of his firm using his family as bait.

 

Unable to bear the public disgrace father deserts the family, and the sons are raised by their mother Seetha (Sowcar Janaki) who brings them to Chennai, who suffers the trials and tribulations of a poor single mother. Raja, the elder brother, grows up with an acute awareness of his father's humiliation and is victimized for his father's supposed misdeeds. In the process of fighting for his rights, Raja, who starts out as a boot polisher and becomes a dockyard worker in his youth, becomes a smuggler and a leading figure of the underworld.