At the Visakhapatnam harbour, smuggler Simon, Nagarjuna Akkineni, runs a tightly organized operation trafficking gold and luxury watches with his loyal lieutenant Dayalan “Dayal,” Soubin Shahir. Simon’s son Arjun, Kanna Ravi, rejects the family business and instead chooses a life as a customs officer, setting up a conflict that threads through the story. An undercover police officer posing as a coolie is killed by Dayal, and the killer quickly becomes the target of a ₹2 crore (US$240,000) reward for exposing another undercover cop in the gang.
In Chennai, Devaraj “Deva,” Rajinikanth runs a stern boarding house and carries the weight of a recent funeral. After learning of his friend Rajasekhar’s death, he attends the service only to be turned away by Rajasekhar’s daughter, Preethi, Shruti Haasan. A drunken Ravi, Charle, admits that he and Rajasekhar ruined their lives, pushing Deva to dig deeper. Though the autopsy cites a heart attack, Deva uncovers signs of chest trauma. Rajasekhar, once down on his luck, had invented an electric chair for cremating animal remains; when his patent was rejected, Simon coerced him into adapting it for human use to dispose of murder victims. Dayal tries to abduct Preethi because she knows how to operate the chair, but Deva intervenes and joins the plan, leveraging the chair with her help. Deva urges Preethi to leave her job, but she stays to support her sisters.
As the plot thickens, Simon presents Deva with a shocking video showing Dayal killing Rajasekhar. Dayal then reaches out to Deva from Nellore, demanding obedience and holding Preethi hostage in his lair. Following Dayal’s orders allows Deva to gain access to a harbor vault and uncover a heart-trafficking ring that targets cheap laborers. One order targets Arjun, but Deva spares him and urges him to run away with his lover in a boat. Dayal retaliates by threatening Preethi on a rooftop, but Deva unsettles him by revealing his own true name, Dilip, and his past as a Kerala police constable in Thrissur.
Deva captures Dayal’s wife, Kalyani, who turns out to be duping Arjun as his lover. Kalyani, Rachita Ram, frees herself, kills Ravi, and reveals that she and Dayal are undercover partners. She orders Dayal to pursue Preethi, who escapes on a train and inadvertently calls Deva using a code from Rajasekhar, exposing that Preethi is Deva’s daughter. Deva’s aide sacrifices himself to protect her from Dayal, who survives. Kalyani directs Dayal to her car, where he finds Arjun; Dayal then calls Simon, admitting he is alive and kills Arjun in front of him. Simon travels to Chennai and sends his men to Deva’s mansion to eliminate Deva and Preethi’s sisters, but Deva repels them with the help of his lieutenant Kaleesha, Upendra, and 18 loyal coolies who once worked with him.
On arriving in Chennai, Kalyani captures Preethi but is herself kidnapped by Simon’s men. Simon murders Kalyani in front of Dayal and then seizes Preethi to harvest her heart. Deva storms the ship, recounting his long-hidden past from 30 years ago as a coolie union leader in Mandwa under Simon’s father Xavier and his partner Kakkar, who fought against their exploitation. When a plan to kill 100 coolies to cover drug smuggling backfired, Deva and Kaleesha sparked a revolt that killed Xavier but cost 70 coolies their lives. A young Simon witnessed his father’s death, a memory that haunted him for years.
Telling Simon that Preethi is his daughter, Deva duels and kills him, and the coolies destroy the ship. Yet the tale doesn’t end there: Deva, Kaleesha, Preethi, and her sisters are later whisked to a desert by the global syndicate leader Dahaa, who is revealed to be Kakkar’s son, Aamir Khan. Dahaa, impressed by Deva’s resolve, offers him a place as his right-hand man, on the condition that his coolies are spared. Dayal is eventually captured and buried alive, ending his threat once and for all.
In the bittersweet finish, Preethi and her sisters depart abroad, forgiving Deva even as they remain unaware that he is their father, affectionately calling him “uncle” as they fade into new horizons.
