Dhanush, who produced the director's previous two films, Ethir Neechal (2013) and Kaaki Sattai (2015), played the lead role this time.

Kodi's father Murugan was a low-rung Democratic party worker, bringing him up in the world of politics before self-immolating in protest against a factory whose toxic mercury waste had ruined lives in the locality.

While fighting members of the opposition on the street one day, Kodi breaks a trolley of eggs that Malathi is trying to sell to a shopkeeper.

She overhears that Arivazhagan, the State education minister from the Coimbatore district, actually dropped out of school and falsified his election nominations.

Enraged and embarrassed, the Democratic leader plots to keep Kodi silent by announcing him as their by-election candidate – now running right against Rudra.

A depressed Rudra asks Kodi to meet her in the woods to talk, and she tells him about the ex-minister standing in her way to success before she eliminated him.

Anbu, as MLA, comes to congratulate her; his look and body language are now completely changed to match his brother Kodi's, much to Rudra's dismay.

Kotraivel, a member of the Democratic party, finds a forest camera hidden in the woods that recorded Rudra killing Kodi.

Rudra uses Crime Branch Inspector V. Ravichandran as a pawn to destroy the evidence and kill Kotraivel, but is still afraid of Anbu finding out about everything as he was taking the documents about the factory to the court.

The project was first announced during August 2015, when Dhanush revealed that he would act in Durai Senthilkumar's next film, after he finished his ongoing commitments.

[17] Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote, "The soundtrack’s highlight is Ei suzhali, a lilting, quirky ballad with a retro-style orchestration, wonderfully sung by Vijaynarain.

[20] Srinivasa Ramanujan of The Hindu wrote, "Director Durai Senthilkumar deserves credit for an engaging plot that includes a pre-interval block that jolts you.

[23] Sify stated that Kodi was "deliciously dramatic, and packed with sinister twists and turns with superb performances and solid writing" and rated 4 out of 5.

[24] Anupama Subramanian of Deccan Chronicle gave 3 out of 5 concluding "Overall, 'Kodi' with some fine performances, especially Dhanush's, and neat screenplay is an engaging political drama.

"[25] Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express gave 3 stars stating Kodi "seems to be everything the Tamil audience wants for this festive season".

[26] Sreedhar Pillai, writing for Firstpost, stated "Kodi is a well written and packaged commercial entertainer that delivers the goods".