This action-oriented romantic drama revolves around Shakthi (Venkatesh), an idealistic and intelligent young man, who is forced to become involved in a life of crime. Inspector Ranjith Kumar (Krishnam Raju) gets a tip about an infamous exiled criminal Shakthi (Venkatesh), entering his jurisdiction, so he checks Shakthi's file. Ranjith Kumar is shocked to find that Shakthi is none other than NCC Cadet an aspiring officer, whom he had met years ago in a bank.
As Ranjith Kumar and Shakthi helplessly watched, a robbery took place and Shakthi's parents were killed. Ranjith Kumar never got to know what happened to Shakthi. Nevertheless, Ranjith Kumar tracks Shakthi and asks him to surrender. Shakthi tells him that he has to save his love Padmini / Puppy (Radha) from the clutches of dreaded gangster Baba Sab (Mohan Babu).
He reveals that he shifted to Madras with his sister Jyothi (Sudha Rani) after the incident. He met a girl named Padmini / Puppy and fell in love with her. Puppy's father Appa Rao (Pradeep Shakthi) didn't like this relationship. Appa Rao was a drunkard who mooched off the money earned by his dancer wife. When she finally stood up to him, Appa Rao burned her face with sulphuric acid. She died soon afterward, following which Appa Rao forced Puppy to follow her mother's steps.
Appa Rao has taken a loan from Baba Sab and the only way to repay it is to make Puppy dance. But Puppy does not give up and continues meeting Shakthi. Appa Rao meets the younger brother of Baba Sab (Ahuti Prasad) who joined him after completing his term for robbery case and he was arrested due to Shakthi.
Baba Sab doesn't know Shakthi's identity. Appa Rao instantly recognizes Shakthi and explains everything to Baba Sab. Chote goes to Shakthi's house and tries to rape Jyothi as revenge. Shakthi averts this and kills Chote. Shakthi is arrested and sentenced to one year in jail, after which he becomes Shakthi and gets exiled. After serving his sentence, Shakthi starts destroying Baba Sab's empire with the help of his friends.
In an act of revenge, Baba Sab kidnaps Puppy. Appa Rao now deals with Shakthi to get Puppy rescued. Shakthi rescues her, but she is shocked to see that Shakthi is sending her back to her father. On learning the whole story from Shakthi, Ranjith Kumar allows him to complete his task.
After saving Puppy, Shakthi surrenders unconditionally to Ranjith Kumar, whereupon he gets arrested and sent to prison. After a retrial, Shakthi is acquitted of his charges and plans to start a new life at Goa. However, Jyoti convinces him to accept Puppy again. Baban reaches Puppy's home and explains Shakthi's actions to her. Appa Rao is enraged and tries to stop Puppy from leaving and tries to throw acid on her face but accidentally he ends up getting killed. Puppy meets Shakthi again.
However, Baba Sab, learning of Shakthi's acquittal conspires to kill him at a Dockyard. Baban (Naresh) gets the tip of Baba Sab's conspiracy and challenges Baba Sab. Baba Sab gets enraged and a fight between him and Baban ends in Baba Sab getting defeated. Baban wants to kill Baba Sab the fit of rage, but Shakthi intercepts him and stops him from committing murder.
Meanwhile, Baba Sab regains his strength and goes to attack Shakthi with a club. Baban dies deflecting the attack. Shakthi fights back Baba Sab and was about to kill him. But the Inspector Ranjith Kumar stops him from killing Baba Sab. In another attempt of Baba Sab trying to kill Shakthi, Inspector Ranjith Kumar kills Baba Sab with his service revolver saving Shakthi's life.