Arjun plays a T.V. news reporter (well, actually a cameraman, but he's promoted to head reporter, as if the jobs are related somehow), who interviews the Chief Minister (Raguvaran). He asks too many tough questions, and the Chief Minister, sickened, yells out, "I have a tough job! You try being CM for a day!"

And so Arjun does become CM for a day, and apparently he is a good one, even though all he does is dismiss everybody and at the end, arrest the original Chief Minister.

He falls in love with Manisha Koirala, a village girl, whose father is played by Vijayakumar. But Vijayakumar wants a mappillai with a government job (and apparently, being CM -- the ultimate government job -- doesn't count). So he says to Arjun, "You leave politics or you forget my daughter."

To make a long story short, Arjun is eventually forced into politics (after a rousing speech by Manivannan) and loses a lot. He loses his parents. He loses his lover. He loses the supposed essence of who he is. To eventually deal with Raguvaran's character, he has to lose his ethics.