The film stars Sangeetha, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Ashish Vidyarthi and Manobala.

The film opens with a cop (Ashish Vidyarthi) and his assistant (Manobala) searching for a prostitute named Dhanam (Sangeetha) in the streets of Hyderabad.

Ananth (Prem), a young student from a Hindu Brahmin family based in Kumbakonam comes to Hyderabad to work.

One day Ananth opens up his feelings to her, but she refuses his proposal, let the public in the street beat him up and walks away.

After hearing that Dhanam is a prostitute and that Ananth wants to marry her, his family refuse to accept the marriage.

One day when her mother was very ill, a man fooled Dhanam by saying that he will take her to the hospital so that they can bring the doctor home, but raped her on the way.

The flashback ends with that Dhanam killing her husband, her in-laws and Vedhagiri by give them food with poison.

Indiaglitz said "Dhanam is a bold venture that is certainly a whiff of air from the rest of conventional commercial masala movies".

[2] Behindwoods rated the film 1.5 stars out of 5, saying "Dhanam is a movie which does not fulfill the scope of its theme.

This, coupled with a pretty narrow cross section of the audience who will accept such bold themes, stacks the odds against Dhanam".

[3] Sify wrote:"Shiva is bold to take such a subject, but his handling, slow pace and too many songs makes Dhanam excruciatingly laboured, the film is dark and depressing".

[4] Rediff wrote:"Altogether a washed out product that passes itself off as a 'serious' film, but instead takes the viewer for a disappointing ride".