Yet another story about how the hero Sivaram (Vijayakanth) frees a village from the clutches of a villainous family. Paired with him in Dharmapuri is tall and slender Lakshmi Rai.
The bone of contention is a 200-acre piece of land donated to the village by Sivaram's father and the village head Meiyappa Chettiar (Vijayakumar). A do-gooder, Meiyappa leaves the village with his wife (Sumitra) and son when a group of villagers, at the instigation of Mookaiyan (Manivannan), doubt his integrity. Vowing never to return, Meiyappa donates all his property to the village.
After his departure, Mookaiyan and his sons Silandhy Karuppu and Peruchali Karuppu (Raj Kapoor and Bobby) usurp the property. They also prevent the villagers from dissolving Meiyappa's ashes in the pond as per the latter's last wish. Meanwhile, the 200 acres are leased to an MLA for quarrying -- a move opposed by the villagers. The school and village hospital buildings are also converted into a wine shop and gambling den respectively.
Finally, the villagers decide to go in search of the legal heir, Sivaram, and find him in Rameswaram. While they successfully persuade him to return to the village, Sivaram's mother is against the idea. The hero and his servant go the village, but only after reversing their real roles.
The role reversal and ensuing comedy are laughable. Outsmarting the villains, the hero revives the village school and hospital. He also plans to donate the land to the villagers. Realising they have been fooled, the bad characters team up, but are outsmarted again.
Despite this hero-driven subject, director Perarasu has tried to give a few frames to heroine Lakshmi Rai who, in turn, does them full justice. However, age appears to be catching up with Vijayakanth, as is obvious in the close ups and fight sequences.
With his political stock rising in Tamil Nadu, Vijayakanth has used parts of the movie to project his party's logo and flag. The camera focuses a couple of times on the hero's ring that has the party's logo, and the sweatband patterned like the party's flag. There is also a song with the lyrics 'Vanthutaru, vanthutaru karuppu vathiyaar,' likening him to political leader MGR. Interestingly, Perarasu has also penned politically oriented dialogues for Vijayakanth.
The movie was originally titled Dharmam Puri, but later changed to Dharmapuri. It is not known if Vijayakanth's winning the Assembly seat from Vridhachalam has anything to do with the change.
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