lavish Zamindar (Rajinikanth) lived with his sister-in-law and cousin Rajasekhar (Raghuvaran), helping people incessantly. His sister-in-law has a son, to whom the Zamindar bequeaths a major portion of his property. At this juncture, a new baby is born to the Zamindar. His wife dies soon after. Brother Rajasekhar cheats them and even kidnapped the Zamindar as he fears that his son's property might be taken back and given to the Zamindar's own son. When the cheating comes to light, the Zamindar hands over all his property and his baby to his sister-in-law and brother and goes to the Himalayas, making his sister-in-law promise him that the baby should be brought up as a servant, not as a Zamindar. This baby is named Muthu (also Rajinikanth).
According to the promise tendered to the Zamindar, the son of the Zamindar's sister-in-law - Ejama becomes a Zamindar(Sarath Babu) and Muthu works as his servant. A huge fan of drama, Ejama regularly takes Muthu along with him wherever he goes. One day Ejama falls in love with a drama actress Ranganayaki (Meena). But Ranganayaki's heart lies with Muthu. Raenganayaki shows love and passion to Muthu. Amidst all this, Ejama's Uncle (Radha Ravi), tries to capture all the property by killing Ejama.
In the mean time the Zamindar who was in Himalayas returns back to see his sister (resembling a Begger Sage), who saves the Ejama and once for all everything about Muthu is revealed to everyone and he marries Ranganayaki, while Ejama marries his uncle's daughter who was madly in love with him. The film ends by showing Muthu refusing to be Zamindar and chooses to be a worker pointing "Oruvan oruvan Muthalali" which means God is the real master and we all are his servants.