It is an alternate history film that depicts India's Partition, Direct Action Day and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse.

He is being taken care of by his grandson Saket Ram Jr., a famous novelist who writes historical fiction, and their family doctor, Munawar.

In 1946, Ram and his Pathan Muslim friend, Amjad Ali Khan are archaeologists working together under Mortimer Wheeler in Mohenjo-daro, Sind Province.

Although many Indian Muslims plan to move to the new Dominion of Pakistan, Amjad decides to stay in India as he believes it is his homeland.

After the archaeological site is shut down out of fear of riots, young Ram returns to Calcutta, Bengal State to his wife, Aparna.

Ram continues to shoot at Muslims committing violence in the streets until he runs into Shriram Abhyankar, a Thanjavur Marathi who is leading a group of a Hindus.

Abhyankar informs Ram that the individual responsible is none other than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and gives him a banned book on anti-Gandhi rhetoric to read.

In 1947, now having returned to his hometown of Thanjavur, Madras Province, Ram's brother Bhashyam and sister Vasantha urge him to remarry.

While his wedding is being celebrated across the village, Ram tells his childhood friends Vedha and Yegham that he has no reason to be happy since the world's biggest political divorce is going on with the partition of India.

During his first night, he learns that Mythili, like her family, are supporters of Gandhi and that the Mahatma will be visiting Calcutta a few days later on the anniversary of the bloody riots.

Then he joins a mob that confronts Gandhi and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Prime Minister of Bengal, about the bloody riots.

During a hunting trip with Abhyankar and the Maharaja, Ram is reunited with his old Sindhi friend from Calcutta, Manohar Lalwani, who lost his family and home in the riots.

Abhyankar and the Maharaj's group hold the belief that Gandhi is solely responsible for the division of India and the violence between two religions, and believe him to be a traitor for supporting and protecting Muslims rather than his own Hindu people.

Due to a horse-riding accident, Abhyankar is left quadriplegic and has Ram swear that he will renounce personal relationships and carry on his work of killing Gandhi.

As they try to stay silent to avoid being attacked by the mob, Ram reminisces about how he plotted to kill Gandhi many decades ago.

However, Ram has made up his mind to kill Gandhi and leaves Mythili, traveling to Varanasi, United Provinces where he goes through a purification and renouncement ritual.

When the police arrive to question Godse, a paranoid Ram hides his gun on a delivery truck, which departs from the hotel.

It is revealed that many Muslims civilians, including Amjad's wife Nafisa and their children, are hiding there out of fear of being attacked by Hindus during curfew.

Together, they then help protect the Muslims hiding in the soda factory until the authorities arrive to control the situation, although Amjad is shot.

Gandhi requests to see Ram to invite him on his long walk to Pakistan after finding out he helped save innocent Muslims.

Ram Jr hands over Gandhi's footwear and spectacles which his grandfather had previously collected from the place of the shootout and had treasured throughout his life.

[12] The Marathi actor Mohan Gokhale was initially cast as Shriram Abhyankar; he had started working on the film in Madras but died suddenly due to a heart attack.

[11][16] Mohini Mathur, who was 13 years old when witnessing Gandhi's assassination,[13][15] accepted Haasan's request to play Amjad Ali Khan's mother Haajra.

[21][22] Subramaniam said he left the project, fearing that his association with the film may offend Hindu people due to its contentious storyline.

Then Ilaiyaraaja convinced Haasan to trust him with this and brought Hindustani singer Ajoy Chakrabarty to sing "Isaiyil Thodanguthamma" and also writing the lyrics for the same.

[24] S R Ramakrishna of The Music Magazine wrote "Ilaiyaraja's score brings back the grandeur, allusiveness and haunting beauty of his best work.

[33] T. Krithika Reddy from The Hindu wrote, "Live sound, prosthetic make-up (Micheal Westmore), splendid cinematography (Thiru), magnificent art work (Sabu Cyril) and painstakingly designed costumes (Sarika) are some of the other highlights of this magnum opus, which is distinct in style and content...The chemistry between Kamal and Rani is explosive to say the least.

"[35] Methil Renuka of India Today praised the film's "technical wizardry" and cast performances but called it "difficult to categorize".

[37] S. Chandramouli of Kalki praised the acting of Kamal Haasan, crisp dialogues, art direction for recreating old times, symbolism but felt other characters speaking different languages gives an impression of watching a film from other language while also felt Kamal who slowly built up his character realistically went hurried with the character's change of heart and concluded saying this film will be enjoyed by urban audience but language will definitely be an issue in villages in spite of that, if this film wins, it will be good for the country and for the world of Tamil cinema.