Kodiyil Oruvan

Past: In Kombai, a corrupt politician, Sukumar, persuades Arulmozhi to be the panchayat leader [village president]. She gets married and gets the position. However, her honest and law-abiding principles anger Sukumar. So, on a rainy day, he organises a group of hitmen to burn her. The group murders Arulmozhi's husband, pours petrol over the pregnant Arulmozhi, and lights her on fire. However, she falls into the river. She gets severely burned and gives birth to a baby boy, who saves her life. Sukumar gets informed of her survival and her son's birth.

Present: The slums of Chennai are reigned by a gangster Sullu, who works for a murderous rowdy Karuna and a councillor Don Gunasekaran. Vijayaraghavan, Arulmozhi's son, is a caring teacher living in Kombai. Arulmozhi sends him to Chennai to complete IAS and advises him to expand his experience, not lose his temper, and make her dream come true. Vijayaraghavan lives in the Chennai slums. One day, at MBA school, Sullu kicks him off his desk, and Vijayaraghavan hits his head. He sees the slum children and decides to reform them. Vijayaraghavan clears his IAS prelims exam. He persuades the children's parents to send them to tuition. He balances his IAS studies and tuition work and becomes the favourite tuition master in the area. Vedhavathi, a classmate of Vijayaraghavan, admires him after hearing his mother's tragic backstory and later falls in love with him. She meets his mother, and he meets her family.

When Gunasekaran visits the slum, Vijayaraghavan questions him on the false police cases registered against the slum children. In response, Sullu and his gang beat him up, and he motivates his students that they would face obstacles but should ignore them and focus on their goal. Vijayaraghavan clears his IAS Mains exam with motivation from Vedhavathi. He plans to go to Delhi for his interview. However, when Vijayaraghavan takes his student Paramesh home, Vijayaraghavan loses his temper and beats up Sullu and his gang. He also beats up Karuna's men. Karuna calls and proposes to meet him so he can break one bone.

The next day, Gunasekaran's men kidnap him. Karuna beats him up and breaks his right arm and his rib. Karuna's men rip up his IAS folder and throw him into the canal. His students successfully pass their exams. The people respect and support Vijayaraghavan. In the elections for councillors, Vijayaraghavan runs as an independent candidate. It earns the annoyance of the District Secretary, Pedha Perumal. He persuades the people to change, and in the election, he wins. Vijayaraghavan thanks the people for his victory. Gunasekaran and Sullu are annoyed by Vijayaraghavan's victory. Pedha Perumal gets angry at Gunasekaran and Karuna. After overcoming many threats from Gunasekaran and persuading his enemy Pedha Perumal, Vijayaraghavan solves the pending issues in his ward.

Eventually, he revamps the slum by painting the houses, laying out new roads and pavements, and giving jobs to the residents. Also, he burns Karuna's drugs. The development in the slum pleases the Tamil Nadu Governor, who posts about the changes on his Twitter page. Gunasekaran complains about the news to Pedha Perumal, and Sullu says he should have beaten up Vijayaraghavan when he had the chance. However, Pedha Perumal insults Sullu and tells Guna he's just jealous. The Governor visits the ward and tries to convince Vijayaraghavan to join the opposition. Pedha Perumal also visits Vijayaraghavan, but Vijayaraghavan rejects his request. Pedha Perumal forces Vijayaraghavan to resign. Sukumar barges into Arulmozhi's house and breaks her hand when she defies him. He emotionally signs the resignation letter and records a video as proof. After hearing the news of his mother's broken hand from his friends, Vijayraghavan beats Karuna and his goons. Gunasekaran realises he lost the area when the people support the ex-councillor Vijayaraghavan.

Pedha Perumal becomes furious at Karuna, saying he is a rowdy who does not know politics; Vijayaraghavan files for an MLA candidate. CM Rajamanickam tells Pedha Perumal that Vijayaraghavan should not contest as an MLA.

Does Vijayaraghavan win the MLA election, and will he get his revenge against Sukumar form the rest of the film.

The shooting was wrapped in February 2021.[6]

The soundtrack and score is composed by Nivas K. Prasanna. The soundtrack album featured five songs and the audio rights were acquired by Saregama.

The film was released in theatres on 17 September 2021. The film was dubbed and released in Kannada, Telugu and Hindi versions under the title Vijaya Raghavan while the Malayalam dubbed version retained the same title as the original.[7][8][9][10] The streaming rights were acquired by Amazon Prime Video.[11]

Sify rated the film with 3/5 stars, stating that "Kodiyil Oruvan is a mass action entertainer from Vijay Antony on the lines of Pichaikkaran with strong mother sentiment."[12] Suganth of The Times of India gave a rating of 3 out on 5 and wrote, " An uneven masala movie saved by strong amma sentiment."[13] Haricharan Pudipeddi of Hindustan Times wrote, "Director Ananda Krishnan's first big-budget film is a predictable but entertaining political thriller."[14] Srivatsan S of The Hindu stated that, "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."[15] Navein Darshan of The New Indian Express wrote, "Kodiyil Oruvan is an unabashed commercial entertainer, and no surprise, the hero wins. Making this format click with the audience is quite tricky."[16] Behindwoods rated the film with 2.5/5 stars, stating that "There are few lacklustre performances that pull down the film's effectiveness. The writing could have been more solid, but despite all this, the film tries to entertain you well throughout. A decent watch for the weekend. Vijay Antony's Kodiyil Oruvan is a watchable commercial drama that is high on emotions and sentiments."[17]

A sequel of the film is also being planned.[5]

• Kodiyil Oruvan at IMDb