On his wedding day, Shiva discovers that his cousin and bride, Aruna, has run away because she does not want to marry a cook. However, he takes it lightly and moves to Chennai with Aruna's brother Prabhu to look for a job. One night, Shiva saves a girl Sandhya from some goons. In gratitude, she kisses him. Shiva starts to fall in love with her. After several occasions where they bump into each other, Shiva harbours hope that she too reciprocates his affections.

However at Sandhya's birthday party, she announces her engagement to computer engineer Pratap. Shiva is devastated at the news and leaves the room quietly. Sandhya finds him standing alone at the swimming pool. She asks him about his impression of Pratap and is shocked when Shiva reveals to her that he loves her. Sandhya declares that she only feels friendship towards him and tells him to stop loving her.

After receiving a telephone call, Shiva goes to the police station and finds Aruna. She had eloped with her to-be lover. However, he later abandoned her and left her penniless. With no one to turn to, Aruna attempted suicide. Shiva takes her back home to take care of her. Prabhu was still angry and calls up their parents. Shiva speaks up for Aruna and gets the family to forgive her. Before returning to the village, Aruna meets Pratap and discovers that Sandhya's fiancé is actually the lover who abandoned her.

On the eve of Sandhya's wedding, she finally understands that she loves Shiva and tells her father that she does not want to marry Pratap. Her father refuses to cancel the wedding and gives Shiva a cheque for 10 million to get the latter to leave Sandhya. Sandhya runs away on her wedding day to look for Shiva and confesses to him that she loves him too. She wants to elope with Shiva, but he brings her back to the wedding venue.

Before the ceremony starts, he calls Pratap into a room and closes the door. When the door reopens, Shiva and Pratap had changed clothes. Shiva is now in the groom's attire, while Pratap is in ordinary clothes. Shiva marries Sandhya in the end. On their wedding night, Shiva reveals to Sandhya what happened between Pratap and him in the room. He offered Sandhya's father's cheque to Pratap in exchange for calling off his engagement, which Pratap accepted. Shiva also reveals that he knew that Sandhya's father would later cancel the cheque, thinking that Shiva is cheating him, which comes to pass.