Chirammal Enashu Francis, a.k.a. Pranchiyettan (Mammootty), is a successful businessman based in Thrissur. He is a devotee of Saint Francis of Assisi and often has imaginary conversations with the saint. His ancestors were rice traders, but he has grown beyond the small rice shop to expand his business into jewellery, real estate, finance, shopping complexes and lot more. Even though he is successful and wealthy, he is not well-educated (He has not cleared the SSLC exams), is unhappy with his name and also wants to become a celebrity. He is called Ari ("rice") Pranchi by everybody, citing his ancestors' business as a colloquial taunt. He wants to change his image from Ari Pranchi to something great and is ready to spend a fortune for it. The film deals with how Pranchi tries to get a good name and what changes that brings to his life.
The story starts with Francis talking to Saint Francis of Assisi about his own life. It starts with a short flashback about a quarrel between Francis and Jose (Siddique) over their lady love Omana (Khushboo) when they were in school. Francis had a romance going with Omana but he had to give her up because of Jose's tricks. Now Jose and Omana are apparently happily married and are leading doctors in the city.
The story progresses with several anecdotes about Francis' attempts to get a good name for himself. He fights a local club election for the place of the club's President but is defeated by Jose. He then arranges a felicitation for the Oscar award-winner Gafoor Chekutty (a spoof of Resul Pookutty), but has to be satisfied with only a back row seat as he had to give up his seat on the dais for a Padmashree recipient. Inspired by the recognition and respect given to a Padmashree recipient, he decides to somehow grab such an award as that may help in changing his name from Ari Pranchi to Padmashree Pranchi. He bribes a politician (Balachandran Chullikkadu) with INR15 million to get the award, but the corrupt politician dupes him.
Dejected, he withdraws into his house when a young woman named Padmashree (Priyamani) comes from Mumbai to invite him for an inauguration ceremony. Following an initial altercation with her due to his misunderstanding her intention, both become good friends and eventually, Francis falls in love with her. He also helps to prevent her tharavadu (ancestral home) from being sold off. However, he is unable to express his love for her and she returns to Mumbai.
During an interaction with his friend Antony (Sivaji Guruvayoor), who is the principal of the local school, he narrates his woe to Francis. He fears that he might not be able to retire with the satisfaction of having presided over a school that got a pass rate of 100% in the SSLC exams. Moved, Francis resolves to help him. He quickly learns that the problem lies with a sole student named Pauli K. J.(Ganapathy), who always fails in the exams. Pauli's parents are poor and cannot help with his studies. So, he brings the boy to his home and arranges for a special tutor, Pandit Deenadayal (Jagathy Sreekumar), to teach him. Deenadayal discovers that the boy is smart and immensely intelligent, but something is holding him back. He tries to teach Pauli to the best of his ability but, the boy's wit proves too much for him.
Pauli fails the exam again. Furious, Francis throws him out of his house. Upon learning that Pauli's parents were just his foster parents, he and Pauli go to see Pauli's biological father, Joppan (Biju Menon), who is in prison serving a life sentence. Francis comes to know that Joppan, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, hacked his wife and Pauli's teacher to death in front of Pauli. Francis concludes that this incident psychologically scarred the boy, which caused his academic performance to tank. The jail warden (Chaali Pala) discloses to Francis that Joppan is suffering from terminal liver cancer, and he deliberately hides it from the boy so as to not cause him further distress.
Francis then goes to the church in his car. While Pauli sleeps in the car, he talks to Saint Francis. He asks for the Saint's permission for him to adopt Pauli. Fearing failure, he asks the Saint to permit him only if he will succeed. The Saint then shows Francis 3 visuals. The first shows his lost love Omana and Jose cheating on each other. In the second, the man who cheated him by offering the Padmashree for a bribe is arrested by the police. In the third, Padmashree openly admits her love for Francis to her friend in Mumbai, and further discloses that she is going to propose to him. The Saint then tells him that what one sees as a success is not always a success and what one has lost can always come back to him in the future. Happy, Francis asks the Saint to bless Pauli. But when he returns with the boy, they find the place empty. An incredulous Pauli dismisses Francis' encounter with the Saint as make believe, but when Francis avers that he asked for and got the Saint's permission to adopt Pauli, he says that he too has seen the saint in human form, as Francis. The film concludes with father and son vowing to clear the SSLC exams together the coming year.
