Build a movie plot around this: What happened to the potential witness? Thugs were hired to eliminate him.
The answer to this question is:
Sakthivelu Nayakar (Kamal Hassan), the protagonist, is born to an anti-government union leader. The child Velu is tricked by the police into locating his father, and then witnesses his father's death in a police shootout. Then after doing the final rites for his father, he kills the person who was the cause for his father's death. Orphaned, he escapes to Bombay.Stranded and homeless in the big city, he is rescued by a kind-hearted Muslim fisherman who takes him into his home in the sprawling suburban slums of Dharavi. His foster-father is also a small-time smuggler known for his generosity in the slum. Upon his running afoul of a senior crime lordthe corrupt local police officer Inspector Kelkarthe fisherman is arrested on smuggling charges, and later murdered. Velu Naiker, now a young man who has come into his own, goes in search of the officer and bludgeons him to death.With this act, he is seen at once a saviour and a man to be feared amongst the slum residents. As their godfather and protector, he flourishes by resuming his dead foster-father's local smuggling activities. He marries a destitute school-girl-turned-prostitute (Saranya) and has two children. Conflicts and power struggles occur in the competitive web of the smuggling world, in which Velu's wife becomes a casualty. Velu's kids are sent away to Chennai as a result and return years later to their father's home, as young adults.The son, Surya (Nizhalgal Ravi) is eager to join his father in his activities. He hires outside thugs to eliminate a potential witness against his father. They succeed in eliminating the witness, but their failure to cover their tracks leads police to him at a gas station and an accident costs him his life. Velu is heartbroken. Velu's daughter (Karthika) is at odds with her father over his form of justice and killings. The death of her brother was the last straw for her and she cuts off her relationship with her father and leaves him.A newly appointed Assistant Police Commissioner (Nassar) starts afresh the hunt to bring...