Manikkam drives an auto in Madras and lives a quiet, patient life with his mother and siblings, putting up with insults from local thugs without ever hitting back. When his family is threatened he finally loses his temper, and the people around him begin to realise that he is not who he seems. A flashback reveals Manik Baashha, a man who once ruled Bombay's underworld at the side of his Muslim friend Anwar, and his deadly rivalry with the crime lord Mark Antony. Baashha is one of the defining films of Rajinikanth's career and a landmark of Tamil mass cinema: its dialogue "Naan oru thadava sonna, nooru thadava sonna maadiri" ("if I say it once, it is as good as saying it a hundred times") became a catchphrase, and its hidden-past structure has been copied many times. Raghuvaran's chilling Mark Antony is equally celebrated. It was dubbed into Telugu as Basha.
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