Tharkappu wants to be a battle cry against state-sponsored killings in the form of police encounters and death sentences. And it tries to argue its case through the tale of Sakthivel, an encounter specialist, who kills a criminal who murdered 16 people and tries to pass it off as self-defence (tharkappu). But a human rights official sees through his bluff and catches him red-handed and reforms him by making him see that corrupt politicians and businessmen have a hand in all his operations so far. Sakthi and his fellow cops decide to surrender in court, but their superiors decide to take them ou...