Mathimaran falls in love with Divya, who works as a nurse in a hospital, but hides his occupation from her as her family hates police officers.

With her help, he finds out about an illegal organ donation racket orchestrated by a politician named Durai Arasan and Dr. Devasagayam, who is the chairman of the hospital where Divya works.

They capture sick and injured migrant workers from North India, make them brain dead by administering them carbon monoxide instead of oxygen, and then harvest their organs, which they sell abroad for huge amounts of money.

In the chaos that ensues, he shoots Durai in the leg and gives him the same treatment which had been meted out to the North Indian workers: administering him carbon monoxide and then harvesting his organs after he is declared brain dead.

After the success of Ethir Neechal (2013), it was announced that the same team including producer Dhanush, director R. S. Durai Senthilkumar and actor Sivakarthikeyan would collaborate for another venture.

[7] Vinu Damodar, a Koothu-P-Pattarai actor, was selected to play a small but significant role, making his film debut.

[16] The song "I'm So Cool" is Sivakarthikeyan's third attempt at singing, after the title track of Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam (2013) and "Royapuram Peter" from Maan Karate (2014).

[18] Before the album was launched on 12 December 2014 at the Radio Mirchi FM station,[19][20] the official tracklist was unveiled a few days earlier.

[28] Anupama Subramanian of Deccan Chronicle rated it 2.5/5 and wrote that director "Durai Senthilkumar and actor Sivakarthikeyan have done an estimable job in making the film at least worth experiencing".

[29] Baradwaj Rangan wrote for The Hindu, "As overlong, utterly generic, badly written, indifferently made action-comedy star vehicles propelled by Anirudh's growling guitar riffs go, Kaaki Sattai is as disposable as they come".

[31] Gautaman Bhaskaran of Hindustan Times rated the film 1 out of 5 and wrote, "Kakki Sattai seems like a work where money has been spent in a mindless pursuit" and felt Sivakarthikeyan was miscast.