AYRATHIL ORUVAN STORY

The film begins with a performance of Therukoothu, a street play of Tamil Nadu, with the folk art showing the last minutes of the Chola King's reign is shown to the masses. Then audience is taken to 1279 with the death of the Chola dynasty and people are being driven out of their kingdom by the Pandyas in southern India. To escape from them and save the life of his successor, the Chola emperor sends his son, along with his people to a secret territory unknown to his enemies. The prince is seen leaving along the side of the chosen who is made responsible to safe guard the prince and the rest of the people. The Cholas also take away with them an idol sacred to the Pandyas, which angers them even more. To capture the escaped Cholas and retrieve their idol, the Pandyas extend their invasion to the unexplored territories which the Cholas have covered with their prince, but eventually fail in their invasion.

Several centuries later in 2009, Indian archaeologists continue searching for the existence of the Chola empire based on clues left by the ancient Pandyan warriors. But all the archaeologists, who attempt to search for the lost land disappear during the search missions. Archaeologist Chandramouli (Pratap Pothan) is the most recent person to have reportedly traced the empire but he also fails to return from his mission.

The Indian government organizes a search expedition led by officer Anitha Pandiyan (Reemma Sen) to find Chandramouli and the Chola Empire with assistance from the Indian army led by Ravisekharan (Azhagam Perumal). They meet the archaelogist, Lavanya (Andrea Jeremiah), the estranged daughter of the missing archaeologist Chandramouli and she assists Anitha and gives crucial documents prepared by her father on the Chola dynasty with instructions on the route to reach the destination. She also joins the expedition since her insight is considered essential for the success of the project.

Along with the army, Anitha employs a group of porters headed by Sukumaran(Karthi Sivakumar), to transport the luggages along the course of the journey. He ogles both the women and has naughty confrontations with them. The crew embark on a ship journey leading them to an island, Min-gua, near Vietnam. On the way, they are met with the seven traps set by the Cholas: sea creatures, cannibals, warriors, snakes, hunger, quick sand and a village. Many porters and army men are killed on their way.

Sukumaran, Anitha and Lavanya get separated from the others. They reach the village where they get subjected to some black magic. They nearly go mad before finally reaching the remaining ruins of the Chola dynasty. The three of them find an ethnic isolated primitive Tamil group ruled by a Chola king (R. Parthiban). The king and his people are in hiding, awaiting the arrival of the fabled messenger whom they believe will bring glory and prosperity back to their land. The king and the Chosen one consult greater gods for signs and orders Sukumaran, Anitha and Lavanya to be burnt alive as sacrifice to their gods.

At this point, Anitha tells the king that she is the messenger he had been eagerly awaiting from present cholas in homeland and had to disguise herself as an archaeologist to find the lost civilization. Sukumaran and Lavanya are taken as slaves. Anitha is given a chance to prove herself as the messenger. She tries to woo the king with her physical beauty. Anitha convinces the Chola king that the message she brought to him is to march towards the homeland on a particular day with his people and he would be crowned a proper king instead of hiding in dark caves. Since King has no way of knowing the real happenings back at homeland,makes himself believe the message. He suspects her bona fides since none of Anitha's actions match the qualities of the messenger described by his ancestors, who predicted that the messenger will get ill treated at first, but then they will help out the local tribe and this will be met by the arrival of rain. But Anitha convinces the king half heartedly.

Anitha finally exposes her identity and the real intention of visiting this civilization. She is the heiress of the Pandyan Dynasty. For generations, her family has been trying to find the whereabouts of the Chola prince and his people who escaped with the Pandya idol. She is here to extract her revenge on the Cholas who stole their sacred idol. The Chola king is shattered for having believed in Anitha as his true messenger and tries to eliminate her. She escapes from the cave and joins the army outside which is also led by Pandyas. The Cholas are at war once again with the Pandyas. The king has to battle against the army to save his people and his son. He also finds that Sukumaran is the true messenger - the chosen one who would save the Cholas from the clutches of Anitha and the army.

They fight bravely but the Cholas lose and are taken prisoners. Their women are molested and raped by the army and the king is killed. The story ends with Sukumaran saving a little Chola boy and the remaining Cholas by escaping into the forest. The Chola prince leaves along side Sukumaran,the new king. The final scene emphasizes that history will repeat itself, prompting that the Chola dynasty will still live on.