Rishi (Sarath Kumar) is a tough, suave, professional criminal who is the right-hand of Sathya (Arun Pandian), the underworld kingpin. On one of Rishi's missions, he happens to watch Minister Devaraj (Devan) killing Hema (Bhuvaneswari), a TV reporter who is about to expose him. Before dying, Hema hands a floppy to Rishi. Rishi neither bothers about the floppy nor the murder, but Devaraj wants the floppy back. Things get confusing because of Velu, who looks like Rishi and gets into trouble. Velu is the opposite of Rishi: he is simple-minded, takes life easy, and works for a moneylender. The "seth" lends money for buying cars, and Velu, with his friend Cheenu (Ramesh Khanna), persuades errant customers to either repay dues or part with their cars.
Complications arise when the paths of the duo cross, for Rishi and Velu are lookalikes. Only Indu (Meena), a salesgirl, seems to have some family to speak of.
The narration moves smoothly forward with Rishi and Velu leading their own lives, then their paths cross. One is mistaken for the other, and complications arise. The underworld guns for Velu.
Meanwhile, Rishi turns over a new leaf when one of his tasks ends up in a singer and dancer named Nandhini (Sanghavi) being blinded. He saves her life, finances for her eye operation, and turns her protector, knowing fully well that she could identify him and the rest of the gang. He even parts ways with Sathya on the issue, but his is unwilling to let him go. Indu, who becomes Velu's girlfriend, sees Rishi with Nandini and misunderstands Velu for his duplicity.
Velu is puzzled when he is attacked by a gang who demands the floppy from him. When Indu accuses him of having an affair with Nandini she sees him in the hospital, Velu visits the hospital and encounters Rishi. The duo strikes a good rapport. The puzzle pieces fall in place. Devaraj, realizing that his ministerial position is shaky, kidnaps Nandini, with Sathya's help and blackmails Rishi to kill the Chief Minister (S. S. Rajendran), but Velu goes in his place. The scene where he tries to warn the security personnel about the assassination attempt, only to find that they too are part of the conspiracy is taken straight from a Hollywood film.
The movie ends rather abruptly, with Velu being shot, the Chief Minister's life being saved by Rishi and Devaraj getting arrested.
The film was initially titled as Sri Ramajayam but ran into production trouble, before retitled and relaunched as Rishi.[3] The film was shot in Chennai and song sequences were shot in Switzerland. During the making of the film, there were reports that the film had a similar storyline to another Tamil film which was in production, Citizen (2001).[4][5] But the movie borrowed liberally from another Hollywood movie Nick of Time
The film score and soundtrack were composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, who teamed up with Sundar C. for the second time after Unakkaga Ellam Unakkaga. The soundtrack released on 6 October 2000 and features 6 tracks overall with lyrics penned by Palani Bharathi, Pa. Vijay and producer Panchu Arunachalam.[7] The song "Vaa Vaa Poove Vaa" was a huge chartbuster.
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