Dhaya (Prakash Raj) is a rowdy in Chennai with enough political clout to make the police look the other way when he indulges in his nefarious activities. Thulasi (Meena) moves into his neighbourhood, but all her attempts to reform him fail. Rudhraiya (Raghuvaran), an ex-army man who has a score to settle with Sharada Amma (Lakshmi), hires Dhaya to discredit her. Sharada Amma runs an orphanage for abandoned children and is a good woman who turns a deaf ear to Thulasi's warnings about Dhaya's real character. Dhaya earns Sharada Amma's trust and gets himself hired as her car driver, while secretly planning her downfall.
Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote that "Daya is interesting at places, but could have been crafted better".[3] A critic from Thiraipadam.com wrote that "Dhaya is another in the long list of movies featuring a rowdy as hero but employs sufficient plot points to seem different from other run-of-the-mill stories".[4] A critic from Cinema Today wrote that "A film with life, it manages to also make an impact on our minds and thus succeed".[1]
