Sulthan 2021

In a bustling Madras of 1986, a powerful gangster named Sethupathi [Napoleon] commands a loyal squad of nearly a hundred goons who act as vigilantes by night. The family at the center of their world is small but fierce: Annalakshmi [Abhirami], his devoted wife, and their newborn child who arrives just as intruders break into the house, aiming to end Sethupathi’s reign. The struggle is brutal, the couple fights to protect each other, and in the end Annalakshmi dies after giving birth to a boy named Vikram, later known to everyone as Sulthan [Karthi]. The gang’s love and care shape the boy, who grows up seeing them as brothers, a surrogate clan that raises him with warmth and discipline.

As Sulthan comes of age, his heart leads him overseas to study Robotics Engineering, a path that promises structure and precision but never quite empties the pull of the world his guardian family has crafted for him. Time leaps to 2021, a year when a village head requests justice for Jayaseelan, a notorious figure who wrecks farmland and burns crops. Sethupathi vows to deal with the threat, yet Mansoor [Lal], ever pragmatic, questions the method and aims to resolve the case through more conventional means. The village welcomes Sulthan’s return with fanfare and a sense of renewal, but danger follows in the form of attackers who stage a pizza delivery ruse and strike at the gang, badly injuring Sethupathi and another member who lands in critical condition.

The aftershocks ripple through the clan: the attackers’ mother is distraught, and Sulthan’s resolve to protect his family is tested in public and private moments alike. Sulthan confronts his past and his father figure’s legacy, and after the funeral, he learns from his lawyer that the attackers were police officers manipulated by Commissioner Manickavel [Hareesh Peradi] to eliminate Sethupathi. This revelation pushes Sulthan toward reform, and the offer of a six-month window to prove the gang’s transformation is granted, though no formal cases can be filed in that time. Mansoor, seeking to safeguard the gang’s power, sends twenty men led by Otta Lorry [Yogi Babu] to eliminate Jayaseelan, but Sulthan steps in and halts the plan, exposing the deception and the tension within the group. A feint about a marriage proposal in the village from Lorry adds a layer of drama, testing the trust inside the family you’ve built.

Seeking a peaceful but lasting change, Sulthan moves the entire gang to a village where they can live and work openly. The town supports a plan to kill Jayaseelan, but Sulthan’s leadership steers away from further bloodshed and toward constructive action. Love blossoms there as Rukmani [Rashmika Mandanna], the head’s daughter, becomes Sulthan’s partner, and he begins to see a future beyond the gun and the glare of the city. The gang secretly shadows Jayaseelan, hoping to halt him, but their attempts fail to deter him. The truth about Jayaseelan emerges: he is chasing iron from a distant mountain, and the only way to stop him is to prove that the land can be fertile and capable of sustained crops.

Rukmani challenges Sulthan to resist the temptations of violence, and Sulthan responds by stopping a lethal plot against Jayaseelan and his men. Meanwhile, a corporate magnate named John Dhar arrives, pressing Sulthan to sell the mountain, and Sulthan refuses. Enraged, Dhar sends his own goons to subdue him, but Sulthan defeats them all. Within the gang, Michael grows bitter after Sulthan disciplines a man who assaulted a woman, revealing fractures of trust and loyalty that will later test the group’s bonds. Yet, slowly, crops begin to sprout on the lands they’ve tilled, the land itself becoming a symbol of their hard-won peace.

John Dhar fights back, and an inspection by Amith Raj of the Ministry of Mines is postponed, buying Dhar more time to press his claim. Rukmani reciprocates Sulthan’s feelings, and the couple becomes engaged in a public ceremony that unites the village and the gang in shared purpose. Sulthan sells his house and invests his savings to buy two acres for the gang, a tangible pledge of a future built on hard work. That night, tragedy strikes when Mansoor is fatally stabbed by Dhar’s goons on a bus, and Sulthan’s protection cannot save him. The gang’s loyalty shatters under the weight of loss, and Michael confronts Sulthan in a bitter clash, sparking distrust that pushes the group to contemplate turning away from Sulthan’s path.

The gang departs, leaving Sulthan feeling hollow and betrayed, while Dhar’s plan to set the town ablaze gathers momentum. Sulthan learns of a new threat as Jayaseelan and his men descend with Rukmani—kidnapping her as a way to pressure Sulthan. The village rallies to his side, and Sulthan stands as their shield, evacuating the town and staying behind to protect it from the looming attack. Dhar’s men return in the night to burn the crops, but Sulthan, his guard Gada [Giant Zanjeer], and a handful of villagers repel many of them, with Sulthan sustaining injuries in the fight. The confrontation culminates in a final, decisive battle where Sulthan defeats Dhar and his men, and Jayaseelan and his followers arrive with Rukmani in tow.

In the aftermath, there is a sense of reconciliation. Michael steps back and apologizes to Sulthan, and the gang, recognizing the cost of their former ways, reunites around the idea of farming and community. Jayaseelan and his marauders are defeated, and the town is saved, not by violence alone, but by the renewed purpose that Sulthan has planted in the hearts of his brothers. With the danger behind them, Sulthan and Rukmani watch over the village as the gang returns to their agricultural duties, a fragile but hopeful testament to a path forged by courage, restraint, and a hard-won belief in a future built from the soil up.