Kammaran Nambiar is a crooked man whose life story as an unscrupulous Indian peasant is turned into a film where he is glorified as a freedom fighter with much manipulation of history.
A group of liquor barons, who are members of the Indian Liberation Party (ILP), want the declining party to win the upcoming Kerala state election to benefit their business interests. To raise the ILP's image, they decide to make a biopic about Kammaran Nambiar, the party patriarch and the last veteran of the Indian independence movement. They ask director Pulikeshi to make a film based on a chapter in the book Unsung Heroes of India by Robert S. Coogan, in which Kammaran is depicted as a forgotten freedom fighter.
Pulikeshi meets Kammaran, now an ailing old man living in an old house with his son Bose. Kammaran tells the young man a story: During World War II, Kammaran was a cunning medical practitioner who would do anything for personal gain. To destroy his love rival, Othenan, Kammaran incites violence between the villagers, Othenan, Othenan's father and cruel landlord Kelu, and British officers. During the violence, Kammaran kills Kelu and Othenan is arrested. Later, Othenan visits Kammaran in the night, but as Kammaran tells the story he begins coughing and is unable to continue.
Pulikeshi makes the film as the ILP instructed, and when Kammaran watches it he realises the roles have been reversed. In the film, Othenan and his friend Singh are working for the British; they are captured as traitors by Netaji (Subhas Chandra Bose) but they escape and Othenan kills the man who reported their treason. The landlord's wife Maheshwari is then shown inflicting cruelty when Kammaran arrives as the leader of the ILP, preventing the harassment of poor tenants and gaining such mass support that Maheshwari is forced to flee. Kammaran is shown doing many things for the benefit of the villagers, such as looting money from the British to distribute it amongst the villagers. Kammaran marries Bhanumathi when Othenan returns and plots with Maheshwari and the British against Kammaran. The plot involves using Netaji's death to gain Kammaran's trust so that they can then blame Kammaran for the planned assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Kammaran then tells the story of how he met Netaji. During the Battle of Imphal in 1944, Kammaran saved Netaji who was injured by a grenade; Netaji found such confidence in Kammaran that he asked him to form a party for the people. As a strong symbol, Kammaran took the axe, the weapon Maheshwari's men used to murder his father, on which he swore revenge against India's landlord system. Kammaran returns to AmruthaSamudram and forms the ILP.
To foil the assassination plot, Kammaran posts his men in three places along Gandhi's procession route to a temple, while he rides on a train with Gandhi. Othenan secretly boards the train and moves against Gandhi, but an informer has warned Kammaran who stops and chases him, fighting, and Othenan is killed after a brutal struggle on top of the train. Kammaran stands to be hanged for killing a British officer. The only person who believes his story is Robert S. Coogan, who convinces Jawaharlal Nehru to free him. The film ends with Kammaran refusing his followers' request to participate in elections, but promising to be back when he is needed.
The film becomes a success and helps the ILP return to power. Elderly Kammaran is made the Chief Minister of Kerala. Pulikesi arrives and asks him what really happened to Othenan. It is then shown that years later Othenan came for Bhanumathi who was then Kammaran's wife, and Kammaran killed him brutally but doesn't reveal this to Pulikeshi. Kammaran tells Pulikeshi that the movie is now history in everybody's mind and that the actual events no longer matter.
