It follows the story of a slum-dwelling student from Pudhupettai who rises to become a dreaded gangster in North Chennai as a means of survival.

The music was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja with cinematography by Arvind Krishna and editing by Kola Bhaskar.

After killing his opposition, he lures his father into an emotional trap, by telling him that he will give him money and shelter.

Fearing for their safety, Kumar sends Krishnaveni and their newborn son away, but Murthy's men intercept them, kill her, and take the baby.

He requests Selvi to ask Mani for help, but she refuses and reveals her displeasure at how Kumar ruined her life and that she plans to return to her former fiancé.

Kumar decides to exact revenge and kills Murthy's henchmen in his residence, but his right hand is crippled during a fight.

However, during the epilogue, it is revealed that the incumbent Chief Minister arranged Kumar’s release and named him as an MLA candidate in the following election.

In the epilogue, it is revealed that Kumar served three times as an MLA and twice as the Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu.

Selvaraghavan originally intended to make a film titled Oru Naal Oru Kanavu for Lakshmi Movie Makers, but shelved the venture and continued working with the same producers and cast as the scrapped film, consisting of Dhanush, Sonia Agarwal and Sneha.

Selvaraghavan called the film "an experiment" and stated it had "one of the most complicated screenplays", while revealing he was more nervous about the final product than his previous ventures.

[6][7] This film marked the first major appearance of actor Vijay Sethupathi, prior to his role in Pizza.

Both the soundtrack and score were composed in Thailand, where Yuvan Shankar Raja worked with the Chao Phraya Symphony Orchestra of Bangkok.

[17] Lajjavathi of Kalki praised Balakumaran's short dialogues, Kola Bhaskar's sharp editing, Aravind Krishna's cinematography adding new dimension to the film while also praising Yuvan's music as new experience but felt his score resembled western cinema which was minus and felt Dhanush's physique was unsuitable for gangster's role and called scenes of Sonia Agarwal as forced and concluded saying it is true that Selvaraghavan wants to move Tamil cinema to foreign films but for that, 'making' alone is not enough.

[19] It went on to have an average run at the box office despite taking a grand opening, with Behindwoods suggesting that excessively violent scenes might have kept family audiences away.

[20] Despite its average performance during its initial theatrical release, Pudhupettai attained cult status in subsequent years.

[24][25] The dialogue "Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru" was also reused by Santhanam in Boss Engira Bhaskaran (2010).