[4] Past: In Kombai, a corrupt politician Sukumar, persuades Arulmozhi to be the panchayat leader, where she gets married and gets the position.

However, Arulmozhi's honest and law-abiding principles enrage Sukumar, which leads to him organising a group of hitmen to burn her.

Arulmozhi sends him to Chennai to complete IAS and advises him to expand his experience and make her dream come true.

One day, at an MBA college, a gangster named Sullu kicks him off his desk, and Vijayaraghavan hits his head, where he sees the slum children and decides to reform them.

In the elections for councillors, Vijayaraghavan runs as an independent candidate, which earns the annoyance of the District Secretary Pedha Perumal.

After overcoming many threats from Gunasekaran and persuading his enemy, Pedha Perumal, Vijayaraghavan solves the pending issues in his ward.

Eventually, Vijayaraghavan revamps the slum by painting the houses, laying out new roads and pavements, and giving jobs to the residents, where he also burns Karuna's drugs.

Sify gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Kodiyil Oruvan is a mass action entertainer from Vijay Antony on the lines of Pichaikkaran with strong mother sentiment.

"[11] Suganth of The Times of India gave 3 out on 5 stars and wrote " An uneven masala movie saved by strong amma sentiment.

"[12] Haricharan Pudipeddi of Hindustan Times wrote, "Director Ananda Krishnan's first big-budget film is a predictable but entertaining political thriller.

"[13] Srivatsan S of The Hindu wrote "The Vijay Antony-starrer is loud, mostly boring and has a soft-spoken, kind-hearted hero at the centre, who seemed to have been written not on a white paper, but on tile.

"[14] Navein Darshan of The New Indian Express wrote "Kodiyil Oruvan is an unabashed commercial entertainer, and no surprise, the hero wins.