The movie starts with Thirunavukkarasu murdering a person in Mumbai. Soon, the story shifts to Kumbakonam where Arasu is employed in a temple by Venu Shastri, and stays in Pichumani's house. Arasu’s calm nature and responsible behavior impresses everyone in the locality. Meera, Venu Shastri’s daughter, falls in love with Arasu. One day, Arasu sees the news about the release of a criminal from jail and gets angered. He also kills the criminal with the help of a few men. Everyone in Kumbakonam gets shocked upon knowing that Arasu is a murderer. Arasu meets Venu Shastri’s family to disclose the truth. A flashback is shown where Arasu is the only son of Nataraj, who is fondly called as Periyavar by his followers in Chennai. Periyavar is a good-natured don striving hard for the welfare of the poor and slum dwellers in Chennai. He is married to Sivagami. Sabapathy is a rich business tycoon who goes to any extent for earning money. Trouble erupts between Sabapathy and Periyavar, following which Sabapathy is arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for his illegal activities which led to the deaths of a few young girls. As a means of revenge, Sabapathy’s brother and his henchmen kill Periyavar and Sivagami. Arasu is angered and vows revenge against Sabapathy and his men. Hearing this, Venu Shastri and Meera understand Arasu’s position and decide to save him by not disclosing his whereabouts to policemen. Despite all the attempts by police to arrest Arasu, he successfully kills Sabapathy and surrenders to the police. He is sentenced to imprisonment and gets released after five years. In the end, he comes to meet Meera, and both get united.
These 5 songs in Arasu are composed by Mani Sharma.
Production
The film marked the debut of Suresh who had worked with directors like N. Maharajan, Dharani, and Lingusamy. Most of the shooting took place at Kumbakonam, in and around the temple areas. Other locations were Mumbai and Kolkata. A fight scene was picturised at the Kumbakonam market area. Five cameras were used and it took ten days to shoot the fight scene. The scene choreographed by Peter Hayen and canned by cinematographer Y. N. Murali, was shot amidst a large crowd including the hero, some stuntmen, character artistes and the locals. Close-up shots of the fight scene was shot again in Chennai Studio where a set resembling the market place was erected.
Release
After this film, Suresh again collaborated with Sarath Kumar for films like Gambeeram and Nam Naadu.
Critical reception
Sify wrote:"the narration is told in a gripping fashion with all the essential ‘masalas’ like punchy dialogues, action, song ‘n’ dance and item numbers". Balaji wrote:"The movie presents the revenge tale in the style of Rajnikanth's Baashha and is quite entertaining".
