Ramanaa

Fifteen tahsildars are abducted from across Tamil Nadu. Fourteen are released after three tense days, but one body is found in Trichy, triggering an official investigation. A taped message and a dossier point to the self-styled Anti-Corruption Force as the masterminds behind the disappearances.

Ramanaa, a mild-mannered professor in Chennai, uses the body of a recently dead poor man to expose a hospital extortion scheme. The hospital staff try to profit from the tragedy, but Ramanaa refuses to let them profit and settles the debt himself, giving the remaining funds to the family. He shares the uncovered documents with power brokers, including copies sent to the incoming President, and the government clamps down on the hospital and the college.

Rishi, the hospital's heir, is arrested and ends his life in despair. Bhadrinarayanan, a powerful construction magnate, returns from Mumbai with a vow to make Ramanaa pay for his son’s death. The confrontation marks a turning point in the struggle between Ramanaa and the city’s corrupt elite.

The ACF abducts the top 15 corrupt officials every month for four months, widening its vigilante campaign. After the four-month cycle, the group shifts to executing the single most corrupt figure to seal accountability. The crackdown heightens public scrutiny and fear across the state.

A Punjabi IPS officer is flown in from Delhi to take charge of the case. He navigates the investigation amid political pressure and intense media attention as the city watches for outcomes.

Devaki, a college girl and Ramanaa’s student friend, begins to suspect the truth behind the ACF. She questions the ethics of vigilantism and the potential harm to innocents, weighing morality against the urgency of reform.

Seven years earlier, Ramanaa is a hopeful professor living with his nine-month-pregnant wife Chitra and their daughter. A nearby construction project collapses their apartment due to Bhadrinarayanan's bribe-ridden operation, prompting Ramanaa to expose the graft to the district council. He is brutalized by Bhadrinarayanan’s enforcers but is rescued by National College students, a turning point that sparks his anti-corruption crusade.

Ramanaa presents his findings to the district council, but Bhadrinarayanan mocks him and bribes the top officials, leaving him with little legal recourse. The intimidation and corruption create a sense of legal paralysis that fuels his resolve to act outside the system.

In the present, Ramanaa confronts Bhadrinarayanan with a lifeline allowing him to call two people anywhere in India. Bhadrinarayanan falters, is kidnapped, and is killed, sealing the arc of accountability that Ramanaa has pursued for years.

Ramanaa surrenders and is convicted as the mastermind behind Bhadrinarayanan’s murder and several other officials’ deaths. He accepts the sentence without appeal, paying the price for his actions. The Chief Minister visits him in prison offering a pardon, which he declines.

Ramanaa sees his children one last time in secret, then gives a tearful farewell. He delivers a final speech urging the public to resist corruption, declaring that reform is worth the cost.

Moments after his plea, Ramanaa is hanged. The constable who helped dismantle the ACF declines a promotion, bearing the movement’s moral cost on his conscience.

The film closes with a meditation on the line between justice and vengeance and whether reform can come from within the system or must be driven by vigilant action. It remains a tribute to those who sacrificed themselves for a cleaner, more accountable society, while acknowledging the lasting cost of such work.