Veerasimhan is the rightful heir to the throne and his younger brother Sasankan is a schemer who will stop at nothing to seize it. Both want Chandralekha, a village singer and dancer, and as Sasankan grabs power the story races through abductions, a travelling circus, escapes and battles. S. S. Vasan's Chandralekha was the most expensive Indian film made up to that time, and its Hindi version, made alongside the Tamil, was a huge hit across North India and opened the Hindi market to South Indian producers. It is remembered above all for its giant drum dance, in which dancers perform on rows of huge drums, and for the long sword fight between Ranjan and M. K. Radha. Its scale influenced Indian spectacle cinema for decades.
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