Tata Birla 1996

Priya Rachana Banerjee is an heiress who loses her parents as a child, and a last-will decree dictates that her vast fortune will pass to an orphanage if someone in her line of inheritance harms her before she turns 21. She grows up under the gaze of wealthy maternal grandparents, watched over by her uncle Ramanathan, a man who presents himself as a caring guardian while quietly plotting to control the estate.

Two petty thieves from Coimbatore, Raja R. Parthiban and Ranjith Goundamani, drift through life on small-time heists. Their fate takes a dramatic turn when they rob a bank, a move that draws the attention of Ramanathan, who happens to be inside the bank at the time. Impressed by their nerve, Ramanathan bails them out and quietly offers them a deadly assignment: eliminate Priya before she turns 21 to secure the inheritance for himself. The thieves initially refuse, sensing the danger, but circumstances tighten around them when they attempt another burglary at a financier’s home and discover the financier dead. Ramanathan uses that grisly evidence—photographs with the dead body and a knife—to coerce them into taking orders.

The plan evolves as Ramanathan elevates his position: he travels to Ooty and is handed the role of caretaker and manager of Priya’s house. From there, a series of failed assassination attempts unfold, each one thwarted by Priya’s courage and quick thinking. In a pivotal moment, Priya saves Raja from a dangerous fall on a cliff by using her saree as a tether, and she reveals that she harbors love for him. This revelation unsettles Raja, who begins to see Ramanathan in a new light and starts to resist his boss’s schemes. He becomes determined to protect Priya and to bring the truth about her parents’ deaths to light.

As the layers peel back, Raja uncovers the truth that Ramanathan was responsible for Priya’s parents’ deaths, deepening his resolve to confront the family patriarch’s dark legacy. The grandfather figure remains a silent witness to the unraveling drama, but the weight of the family’s secrets presses hard, and the tension with the two would-be killers intensifies. The situation spirals further when Priya’s grandfather learns that Raja and Ranjith were small-time thieves and murder convicts, a revelation that fractures trust and pushes everyone toward a violent reckoning. In a brutal twist, the grandfather is shot in the neck, leaving him unable to speak and complicating the drive for justice.

Ramanathan’s grip tightens as he poisons Priya’s birthday cake and uses the moment to reveal his true crime: he is the mastermind behind Priya’s parents’ deaths, and Raja’s innocence has been a carefully staged misdirection. On the birthday, the grandfather sacrifices himself to shield Priya, an act that seals Raja’s fate as he is framed and forced to leave. But Raja does not stay down for long. He returns in a daring move, kidnaps Priya, and a tense chase erupts. A gunfight erupts around the cliffs and the house as Raja fights to save the woman he loves from the man who has orchestrated so much harm.

In a climactic confrontation, Raja is wounded but still fights on, while Ramanathan lays bare his chilling plan to sever Priya’s future completely. Just when Ramanathan seems poised to finish his manipulation, the injured Raja returns at the last moment to shield Priya and turn the tables on the criminal patriarch. The confrontation ends with Ramanathan fleeing into the forest, warned never to return to Ooty, effectively exiling him from the lives of Priya and Raja.

In the aftermath, Priya and Raja begin a new chapter together, with Ranjith continuing as the house manager and guardian of their home. The story leaves their bond intact and the illicit ambitions of Ramanathan behind, developing a balance between romance, danger, and a hard-won sense of justice. The film closes on a note of cautious optimism: a couple united by peril, supported by a trusted ally, and free to build a life together beyond the shadows of a dangerous inheritance.