In Dubai, a cop named Ruby interrogates an old man in an attempt to capture the dreaded don Michael. The man narrates Michael's story.

In 1992, in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Madurai Michael is a notorious thug who works for a smuggler named Senthamarai and kills for money. He spends his time with his sidekicks played by Mahat and VTV Ganesh. Michael falls for Selvi, a girl from his town. Selvi rejects him initially, but later reciprocates his love. She asks him to leave his gangster life and move to Dubai, starting a new life. Michael half-heartedly accepts this. However, an enemy from the same gang backstabs Michael by turning into a witness for many murders committed by Michael and the latter is jail.

Michael then escapes prison with the help of his friends and finds out that Selvi is soon to marry a man of her parents' choice. Understanding that he is going to be on the run forever, Michael leaves Selvi and migrates to Dubai where he rose to become a dreaded gangster.

Back in Dubai, the old man, one of Michael's friends, dies soon after narrating the story. Ruby and the other cops figure out that Michael will be over 50 years old and would be fearing for his life, hiding somewhere. They circle in on Chennai and send a fax of Michael's photo to the police in Chennai. But Michael is revealed to be living a lavish and happy life in Chennai under the alias of Ashwin Thaatha.

Ashwin has all the money he wants in his life except for a woman. So he decides to get married. While interviewing probable brides, he falls in love with a much younger girl called Ramya, who along with her father is running an old-age home. Ashwin mistakes Ramya's friendly talks as a reciprocation of his love and is ecstatic when she decides to tell her father about her love.

At a ceremony, Ramya breaks the news to her father by saying that she loves someone and wants to marry him, but the age difference might be a problem. To Ashwin's surprise, Ramya introduces a younger man called Shiva who looks like Ashwin. It turns out that Shiva is only a few years younger than Ramya and they had pursued a long-distance relationship, he is settled in the US.

A distraught and broken Ashwin resorts to drinking and turns negative when he kidnaps Shiva. He employs a prominent make-up artist and plans to use their resemblance to pose as Shiva and win over Ramya.