The narration is divided into three phases. The pre-Independence period, depicting Kamaraj's childhood, the influence of Satyamurthy, Kamaraj's growth as a politician and his prison life. The second phase depicts his taking over as the Congress Chief Minister of the state, the reforms he tries to bring in, especially in education, his largesse and his bending the rules for a good cause-like for the urgent eye-operation of a kid. It also displayed his sense of humour, his refusal to take advantage of his position. The third phase where he puts forth the Kamaraj Plan, resigns from the post of CM, involves himself in party work; his influence on national politics, his emergence as a kingmaker and finally his disillusionment with the emerging non-ethics in political life. The closing scene, show swarms of humanity mourning the death of their beloved leader.
Balakrishnan had previously made a television serial on K. Kamaraj and wanted to make a feature-length film on the politician. Richard Madhuram, a retired duty manager, was selected for the film after Charuhasan had spotted him and recommended him to the director as a lookalike of the political leader in 1995. After pre-production, the film was launched on 23 August 2002 with several politicians in attendance at the launch event. M. S. Bhaskar has lent his voice for Richard Madhuram in the film. The film was shot in 20 days on a budget of Rs 50 lakh.
Release
The film gained positive reviews prior to release, with a critic from Sify.com noting that it was a "class act" and that "Balakrishnan has been faithful to the subject and has come out with a mature form of cinema." The film was released across Tamil Nadu in February 2004, but took a low key opening at the box office. A year after release, the makers chose to dub the film into English and release it in 2007 as Kingmaker in attempt to increase financial gains from the project. In 2013, Balakrishnan revealed that the film would have a re-release with fifteen extra scenes edited into the film. Richard Madhuram's death in 2005 meant that his son Pradeep Madhuram essayed scenes which needed the protagonist while Vijayakumar was featured as Periyar. Scenes were later digitalised and extra portions featuring actor Samuthirakani were filmed in June 2014. The updated version of the film was re-released in July 2015.
