Akbar, a powerful man of Mangalore underworld, shares his business lead with Mani Menon and Uncle Sam. They share a good relationship until Anto, grandson of Uncle Sam, creates havoc.

The journey of two strangers-a jobless carefree man,and a woman with whom he has fallen in love. Upon the woman’s request, he drives her to Mumbai, while a group of gangsters follow them, planning to kidnap the woman.

The film starts with the murder of a former Police Commissioner Shanmuga Sundaram (Subbu Panchu) by an escaped prisoner Kamal Ekambaram (Riyaz Khan). The story then shifts to Masilamani aka Massu (Suriya) and his friend Jet Li aka Jettu (Premgi Amaren) who are small-time con artists. Massu meets Manini (Nayantara), a nurse, and they subsequently fall in love. While trying to escape after a heist gone wrong, Massu and Jet meet with a car accident, post which Massu starts seeing dead people, with whom he can communicate. Jettu had died in the accident and is now a ghost, too. Massu forms a group of loitering ghosts to earn money by performing fake exorcisms and extorting money from scared, rich people, while promising the ghosts that he would fulfill their last wishes in return. Meanwhile, Manini, who thought Massu was working in a finance company, gets to know about the fake exorcisms and leaves him in a heist.

A cop takes bribes from politicians and goons. He rethinks his life choices after he meets a girl.

Sridhar Vasudevan (R. Madhavan) is a middle-class family man employed in a bank. He is very idealistic, principled, and recognizes a deep sense of belonging with the society he is part of. He gets annoyed and flustered by illegal and semi-legal activities happening around him. His wife Vatsala (Sangeetha) persistently demands he should be more ‘flexible’ and make more money, but Sridhar does not accede. He endures the illegal and semi-legal activities around him because he anticipates a change in the mindsets of people. He feels that over time, they will become more honest, socially aware and willing to make small personal sacrifices for the greater good of all (like him).
Vatsala is a typical middle-class housewife and a caring mother of two children, Varsha and Varun. Societal imperfections and related problems matter very little to her. She is more concerned about her reactive husband, thinking about ways to save him from the effects of his angry outbursts and to steer him away from his impractical thoughts and deeds.

Arumugam (Bharath) is a good Samaritan who makes a living selling Idli’s on roadside platform shop along with his father (Ilavarasu), sister (Saranya Mohan) and sidekick (Karnas). Arumugam is in love with his childhood sweetheart Yamini (Priyamani) His best friend is the rich kid Karthik (Satya) whose sister is an arrogant tycoon Malini (Ramya Krishnan). She and her uncle (Mahadevan) hates Karthik’s deep bonding with Arumugam, who she finds to be below her stature. Malini, through her machinations is able to separate the friends and bring Arumugam to the streets. Our hero after his mother’s (Seetha) grave is bulldozed and his sister humiliated, vows to bring Malini to the streets. And like you have seen in hundreds of earlier films the hero due to his hard work and smart moves becomes the richest man in the town and takes his revenge.

Attu, which means ugly in Tamil, is an action packed romantic love story.

The film opens with the birth of Baba (Rajinikanth), who is a ‘baba amsa sambhootudu’. Baba grows up as an atheist and hot-blooded man, but he is a Good Samaritan. His lifestyle includes consuming alcohol, smoking substances, and chewing tobacco. His mother (Sujatha) and maternal uncle (M. N. Nambiar) are ardent devotees of Mahavatar Babaji (the Mahaavtar Baba who is supposed to be 2000 years old and who lives in the Himalayas). Chamundeswari (Manisha Koirala) stays in the neighborhood of Baba’s residence who often quarrels with Baba but eventually falls in love with his style and falls for his attitude.

During the Mamankam festival held at the banks of Bharathapuzha in Tirunavaya, soldiers from various places used to come together to wager battle.

Ramachandran (Sachin Khedekar) is a genetics scientist who does not get due credit and funds for his research. He tries creating a human with several talents through baby designing, which leads to the birth of his sons, who are conjoined together above the waist. Since they share a common heart, doctors suggest a sacrificial surgery, to which their mother Sudha (Tara) objects. They begin raising their children, Vimalan and Akhilan (both played by Suriya). In the following years, Ramachandran makes it big with Sudha’s help. His company, Locus Lacto Products, makes huge profit through their product ‘Energion’, the top-selling children’s powdered milk energy drink in the market.

Ajith is Red (it stands for Revolution, Education, Development), an orphan who has since grown up to be the local don in Madurai. Naturally he possesses a heart of gold and when not bashing up bad guys, he spends his time forcing schools to accept students without donations and taking care of orphans. Cheeni (Salim Ghouse) is his biggest enemy. Red falls for Gayatri (Priya Gill), the daughter of his friend and confidante Narayanan (Manivannan) and helps her without her knowledge. She too likes him but wants him to give up his life of violence. Meanwhile, a reporter (Rajesh) for Ananda Vikatan begins to serialise Red’s story under the name Aadi and it becomes quite the rage among readers

Following the corruption in the higher echelons of the government, stashing of black money abroad by Indians, corruption in the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption and travails of Indian fishermen and the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict.