Thavasi aka Chinna Gounder (Vijayakanth) is the village landlord and is responsible maintaining law and order in the village. The movie starts with a scene showing how skilfully Chinna Gounder solves a case quickly and is appreciated by an advocate (Ra. Sankaran) seeing his swift decision making skills. Chinna Gounder lives with his mother Aatha (Manorama) and is the most respectable person in the village, known for his justice and loyalty. Rivalry exists between Chinna Gounder and his brother-in-law Sakkara Gounder (Salim Ghouse), who is accused of marrying Sundari (Sathyapriya) following Chinna Gounder’s sister’s death.
Sakkara Gounder plans to grab the local temple premises by forging false documents, but Chinna Gounder exposes the frauds committed, thereby preventing the temple premises from going into the hands of the baddies. Sakkara Gounder is angered and waits for an opportunity to knock out Chinna Gounder.

Surya (Prashanth) is a carefree youth living in Malaysia with his brother Chandramohan (Raghuvaran) and sister-in-law Devi (Sukanya). Chandramohan and Devi are childless because of a problem with Chandramohan. Surya falls in love with dancer Priya (Riya Sen) and manages to steal her heart too. Just when things seem happy, a bombshell is dropped by a Sister Mary who tells Surya that he is the father of a small girl Pooja. Pooja must undergo an operation to save her life but insists on seeing her dad before agreeing to the operation. Surya agrees to pose as her dad and is forced to do so on a more permanent basis even after the operation is done. He is driven out of the house and loses Priya, who agrees to wed an earlier suitor, Shyam (Sanjay Asrani). Person who happens to be the dad of Pooja’s mother wants to kill Surya for cheating his daughter but ends up being arrested by police. Second half shifts to Cruise ship, where Chandramohan finds out that Pooja is actually his daughter. The film ends with Surya and Priya reuniting.

Prabhu hails from a poor family, and lies to Sukanya about him being poor and marries her. Sukanya’s mother plots to destroy their marriage, but succumbs to their love.

Krishnaswamy (Kamal Haasan) is a widower living happily along with his mother-in-law Saraswathi (S. N. Lakshmi), daughter Kaveri (Mahanadi Shobana) and son Bharani (Mahanadhi Dinesh) in a village near Trichy. Dhanush (Cochin Haneefa), a con from the city, has an eye on Krishna’s prosperity and asks him to join his chit fund business. At first, Krishna is reluctant; however, when a rich friend from a foreign country visits his house, he too wants to be rich like them. Hence he agrees to Dhanush’s proposal and arrives at the city. However, he is unaware of Dhanush’s tricks and when Dhanush swindles away the chit fund money, the blame is put on Krishna, and he lands up in jail. He finds that even his future father-in-law Panjapakesan (Poornam Viswanathan) is also in jail for the same reason, whose daughter is Yamuna (Sukanya), working as a nurse. He advises Krishna not to be angry if the jailor is cruel, as he might be released sooner if he is submissive in the jail. During Krishna’s tenure in jail, Yamuna takes care of his family. Due to unavoidable situations, his mother-in-law dies and his children go missing. Krishna learns this after coming out from jail suffering unnecessary hardships.

Very much concerned about his family’s financial status, Arivudainambi is unhappy with the way his sister’s wedding to a wealthy man is being done.

Mirasu (Senthilnathan) killed his elder brother Selvanayagam (Nizhalgal Ravi) and Selvanayagam’s wife (C. R. Saraswathi), he tried to kill his mistress Lakshmi (Kavitha) for the inheritance. The innocent Lakshmi was then sent in jail for Selvanayagam’s murder and gave birth in jail, with the help of a police officer, she escaped from jail with her son Vijay.
Many years later, Mirasu spreads terror among the villagers and rapes the village girls, his son follows his path. Poongodu (Sukanya) and her family try to flee the village but Mirasu’s henchmen intervene and Vijay (Sarath Kumar) saves them. Vijay, who comes from another village, introduces himself as an orphan. Poongodu falls in love with Vijay and he gets married to her. Finally, Vijay clashes with Mirasu. What transpires later forms the crux of the story.

A lawyer who defends criminals wages vigilante justice against them in private. The movie deals with the murder of a girl who was ragged and brutally murdered by her classmates. The lawyer, through his own investigation, arrives at the fact that she was brutally raped by college authorities and framed the students as culprits.

A veteran freedom fighter named Senapathy learns a rare form of martial art that enables him to kill anyone with his bare hands. He uses that to end crime and punishes the culprits on his own.

Walter Vetrivel is an honest police office, who delivers justice even if it is against his family. He refuses to spare his criminal brother when he discovers that he is involved in malpractices.