Murugesan (Livingston) is a rich landlord in a village but is illiterate as well as innocent. He is in love with his cousin Maheshwari (Devayani) right from childhood. Maheshwari also likes Murugesan but she wants him to overcome his innocence and be brave. Santhamoorthy (Ponnambalam) is Murugesan’s half brother and enmity prevails between him and Murugesan. Chinthamani (Vindhya) is a dancer who comes to Murugesan’s village to perform. Chinthamani’s mother forces her into prostitution but Murugesan saves her and accommodates in his farm house.
Murugesan and Maheshwari’s wedding is fixed and the day before wedding, Santhamoorthy tries to kill Murugesan but Murugesan fights back the goons. Murugesan who is drunk now rushes to his farmhouse to get some weapons to kill Santhamoorthy. Chinthamani who lives in the farm house tries to stop Murugesan from committing the murder and accidentally they enter into a physical relationship. Murugesan feels guilty of the incident and wants to cancel his wedding with Maheshwari. But Maheshwari’s father (R. Sundarajan) convinces Murugesan to not cancel the wedding.

Makkal Thalapathi is a dubbing version of malayalam movie Prajapathi. Devar madom Narayanan is accused to kill is father, for being cruel to his mother, at the age of 13 and serves sentence in a juvenile home. When he returns, he becomes leader of the people of Perumalpuram village. He ensures the village devoid of all wrong doers by absenting them from the village. His enemies are his uncle Kunjambu Nair and wife Indrani.
Kunjambu Nair hated Narayanan for killing his brother. Although Kunjambu Nair and his son Giri tried in many ways to kill Narayanan. At one point Giri almost succeeded in killing Devar madom Narayanan. But Narayanan again didn’t react. He was in good terms with Kunjambu Nair’s daughter Sandhya and his Murapennu. Giri tries to sell his land in Perumalpuram to some outsider whose arrival, Narayanan knew, would destroy the harmony of the village. That is when Narayanan decides to react.
Finally it turns out that Kunjambu Nair was the one who actually killed his father for their wealth. Narayanan helps Ali Raghavan, the real son of Kunjambu Nair, to gain his birth right. When Giri finds that he is the stepson of Kunjambu Nair, he kills his stepfather. But the family drives him away from home with the help of Narayanan. Rest of the film is about how and if Giri take revenge on Narayanan.

‘Honest’ Raj (Vijayakanth), a police officer in coma for four years, wakes up suddenly. Abhinaya (Gouthami), a newly appointed doctor, saves him from a killer with the help of Raj’s assistant Velu (Senthil).
In the past, Raj lived with his mother Maragatham (Manorama) and took the IPS exam. They shifted to their relative’s house in a village. Pushpa (Aamani), a village girl, fell in love with Raj. Raj’s best friend Bharatha (Devan) attempted to suicide after his father’s creditors pressured him. Raj saved him, and Bharatha lent his printing press company to Pazhani. Raj and Pushpa got married, and he passed the IPS exam successfully. Bharatha found counterfeit money in his factory and started an illegal business with Pazhani. Bharatha then became rich and killed his partners.