Indian 1996

Veerasekaran Senapathy, Kamal Haasan, is a retired Indian freedom fighter whose rigid code of honesty and justice anchors a tense, escalating battle against corruption. In Avadi, a chilling pattern of killings begins: a knife strike followed by the victim falling paralyzed before death. The Chennai Police Department, working in tandem with the CBI, forms a joint task force led by Krishnaswamy, Nassar, to hunt down the killer. Their evidence points to an elderly man—someone likely over seventy—whose writing style surfaces in a letter left behind at the scene, suggesting a deliberate, methodical killer rather than a random assailant. The case tightens as clues accumulate, and the team narrows the suspect pool to a man in the twilight of his years, someone who has seen and endured too much to stay silent.

The investigation intersects with a web of personal loyalties and public anger. Chandrabose “Chandru,” a small-time broker outside the Regional Transport Office in Chennai, and his assistant Subbaiah operate a bribery network that helps people grease their way into permits and licenses. Chandru’s world collides with that of Aishwarya, a principled animal rights activist portrayed by Manisha Koirala, who becomes entangled with Chandru as she clashes with Sapna—the daughter of the Secretary of Transportation. Sapna, Urmila Matondkar, finds herself pursued by Chandru as he attempts to win her family’s favor to secure a job for himself as a brake inspector at the same RTO. Aishwarya, frustrated by the manipulation around Chandru’s life, also gets drawn into the conflict as Sapna’s ambitions and the corrupt machinery surrounding the RTO clash with her ideals.

Meanwhile, the investigation advances to Senapathy’s doorstep. Krishnaswamy, posing as a freedom fighter eligible for the Swathantra Sainik Samman Pension, traces the killer back to Senapathy’s home. When Krishnaswamy attempts an arrest, Senapathy and his wife Amirthavalli, a skilled practitioner of Varma kalai, outwit the authorities and flee. The couple eventually reaches a hospital, and there a chance encounter with Chandru—who is revealed to be Senapathy’s son—unfolds a crucial truth: the father had forced a hard line on honesty and righteousness, a stance that drove a wedge between them and led to years of estrangement. The revelation deepens the moral conflict at the film’s core: can integrity justify brutal acts if the system remains hopelessly rotten?

A turning point comes when Senapathy kidnaps and murders a corrupt doctor on live television after the doctor refuses to treat Senapathy’s daughter Kasturi—who suffers third‑degree burns—unless a bribe is paid. Kasturi’s plight propels a public outcry and rallies sympathy for Senapathy, who exposes a broad spectrum of corruption, from officials to medical practitioners. Yet the same crusade lays bare a darker fault line: Chandru, now a brake inspector, accepts a bribe to certify a school bus with faulty brakes, leading to a catastrophic crash that kills forty schoolchildren. The tragedy exposes the cost of bribery and the fragility of reform when life itself becomes collateral.

As the moral storm intensifies, Chandru tries to frame a dead driver for drunk driving by injecting alcohol into the driver’s corpse, having bribed a doctor and a police officer to seal the cover-up. Senapathy intervenes, is captured, and then escapes from custody. Amirthavalli and Aishwarya plead for mercy, but Senapathy presses on toward a dramatic finale at the airport, where Chandru attempts to flee to Mumbai. In a tense pursuit, Senapathy fatally corners Chandru, and the explosion of a jeep and airplane seems to terminate him—but Krishnaswamy’s footage reveals a counterpoint: Senapathy had escaped moments before the blast. In a final, quiet moment, Senapathy calls Krishnaswamy from Hong Kong, signaling that his fight isn’t over and that he may return if the need arises, leaving the door open for a continuation of a complex war between idealism and the real, flawed world it inhabits.