The film stars Ranjith and Sujibala, with Chandrasekhar, Meera Krishnan, S. Rajasekar, R. N. R. Manohar, Ilavarasu, and Velmurugan playing supporting roles.
The jobless and carefree young man Cheran (Ranjith) lives with his parents Sundaram (Chandrasekhar) and Dhanalakshmi (Meera Krishnan) and his elder brother Ravi (Ramesh Maali).
Cheran and Kutty have no choice but to hide from the police, and they then meet Ezhumalai's archenemy "Royapuram" Bava (R. N. R. Manohar), who promises to offer them protection.
Cheran starts drinking alcohol, gets addicted to drugs, and spends his nights in a brothel, where he meets the young prostitute Geetha (Sujibala).
The film ends with the family fulfilling the annual rites of Cheran on the Chennai beach and with Dhanalakshmi explaining all that happened to her young grandson.
K. S. Saravanan, who had worked with various directors, including Keyaar and Vikraman, made his directorial debut with Don Chera under the banner of Sivasankaralaya.
Sivamanoharan took in charge of cinematography while newcomer Prince G. who worked with Harris Jayaraj as his keyboard player, had taken care of the music and editing was done by R. T.
[7] Balaji Balasubramaniam of bbthots.com called it a "weak remake of Sanjay Dutt's Vaastav" and wrote, "Ranjith overacts almost throughout [..] Susi Bala is introduced pretty late but is adequate in the few scenes where she is required to emote.
Ilavarasu plays a villain for a change and manages to utter a few comments in his trademark style without letting his character lose its evil nature".