Navarathiri

The film opens with a narrator introducing Navarasam—the nine types of human behavior—and explains that Sivaji Ganesan embodies nine roles, one for each emotion. This framing sets Nalina's journey as a medley of Wonder, Fear, Compassion, and the other Navarasams across the Navaratri nights. The setting is Nalina's home during the festival, foreshadowing the trials to come.

Nalina learns that Anand, her college mate and lover, is about to marry someone else. Believing she has been betrayed, she attempts suicide. A widower named Arputharaj stops her and takes her to his house, hoping to help; reluctant to return home, she leaves at dawn the next day.

After unintentionally damaging a vegetable vendor's wares, Nalina is confronted by the vendor. A homely looking woman takes Nalina to her home and to a brothel house, where Nalina confronts a drunkard who rationalizes his actions. After a struggle, the drunkard faints and Nalina escapes.

At a police station, Nalina pretends to be a mentally ill woman to avoid arrest. An elderly doctor, Karunaagaran, realises she is sane and helps her. She spends the night in the mental hospital, and the next morning a missing-person notice with her photo is found; she escapes while the doctor is distracted.

Nalina mistakes a police jeep for an arrest and heads toward a man with a gun. The man is a killer seeking revenge for his brother's death, and Nalina convinces him to surrender to the police. In an ensuing attack, the gunman is killed by the businessman's henchmen, and Nalina escapes.

Fed up with life, Nalina walks onto a railway track to commit suicide. An innocent villager saves her and brings her to his home, introducing her to his elder sister. A local priest accuses Nalina of being possessed by a spirit to extract money through fake rituals, and she escapes that night.

Nalina meets an old leper who was once rich but lost everything to charity. The doctor who treats him learns that the leper’s wealth helped others, including the doctor himself, and decides to stay with him until he is cured. Nalina eventually leaves the hospital.

Nalina comes to aid Sathyavaan Singaaram, a director and actor whose village troupe needs a replacement for the seventh-day play. She agrees to act on the condition that she can leave after the performance, and the show is a success. Afterward, the troupe’s agent tries to misbehave, but the actor protects her and Nalina quietly departs.

Nalina disguises herself as a man, Nathan, and visits hunter Veerapan, rumored to hunt a man-eater. Veerapan turns out to be the police commissioner pursuing a criminal, and he catches her during a tense confrontation. He reveals that the groom arranged by Nalina's father is Anand, her lover, setting up the ninth night.

Anand, initially pale and withdrawn, waits for Nalina at his home where his family worries about his condition. Miscommunication had led Nalina to leave home on the first Navaratri night, and she returns on the ninth. They finally marry, with the wedding attended by all the people she met during the nights—except the dead gunman.