Shakti (Madhavan) is a young man from a village, with no job but much ambition and dreams. As he sees his life pass him by, stuck in a rut in his hometown, he decides that he will try his fortunes elsewhere. Chennai beckons him and off goes Shakti, to join his uncle Kirikalam (Vadivelu), who has a stall of magic tricks at an exhibition. No, Kirikalam is not really a magician, but is posing as one and his amateurish tricks don't exactly bring in big crowds. Next door to Shakti and Kirikalam's stall though, is one ever-populated with visitors. The reason: it's an all-girls stand, with mermaid costumes as the theme. Velli (Reema Sen) is the 'head mermaid' at this stall run by her sister, and bitter quarrels between Shakti and Velli ensue, when Shakti feels that Velli and her team are unfairly taking their customers away and Velli has this impression of Shakti being an unsavoury character. This misunderstanding is seen at different occasions where Velli and Madhavan just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time - be it when Shakti gets off the bus from his village, asks for directions and is told to follow Velli, walking in the distance (Velli thinks he's a womaniser) or when Shakti finally catches up with a miscreant who had picked his pocket and demands his money backâ€"only Velli walks into the scene only at the demanding part. This whole collage of scenes is animated, with Kirikalam and Shakti trying to woo customers back to their stall, Shakti and Velli getting into arguments and a general state of "fun" ruckus. Of course, love has been brewing as an undercurrent between the two young people. Manivannan plays the character of the owner of the exhibition grounds and keeps harassing Velli under some pretext or the other, like the rent not being paid on time. In fact, he has a soft spot for Velli, feelings thoroughly rejected by her. He finally abducts her, but Shakti rescues Velli. Similarly, Velli's plight is repeated when her "mora maapillai" (betrot