Elder Miller: Chapters 1-5

In the 1930s, during the British Raj, Analeesan "Eesa", a villager, wants to gain respect because of caste issues in his village, and wants to join the British Indian Army. This is opposed by Sengannan alias Sengolan, his elder brother, who is leading a revolution against the British. Eesa meets Velmathi, a doctor and the niece of the royal king, Rajadhipathi, and falls in love with her. However, he learns that she is in love with someone else and, left with no choice, forgets about her. He soon joins the army and is called "Miller" due to the British not being able to pronounce the soldiers' birth names, but brands himself as "Captain Miller". In one of their many missions, Eesa, along with his army friends, Rafiq and Sembatta alias Stephen, are forced by their General, Buller, to shoot innocent and defenceless freedom fighters at a public gathering. When the soldiers are disposing of the freedom fighters' bodies, Stephen commits suicide out of guilt, prompting Eesa to kill Buller. Afterwards, he also attempts suicide, but Rafiq stops him and tells him to leave the army and return to his village. Eesa does so and learns that his brother was also killed along with the other freedom fighters in the gathering massacre. The villagers berate and throw him out of the village. During a skirmish between a group of revolutionaries and the British, Eesa helps the revolutionaries kill the Britishers through guerilla attacks and joins their group. Eesa and the group successfully orchestrate another attack against the Britishers, but he gets shot in the process. He crosses paths with Velmathi again, who treats him, and learns that her husband also died in the gathering. She tells Eesa to kill Riley, the son of a British Governor, to avenge her husband's death. Meanwhile, the British government learns about a precious gemstone, which is 600 years old, from King Rajadhipathi and seizes it with the discreet help of Kanagasabai, Rajadhipathi's minister, who reveals the location of the gemstone under the temple's deity, Shiva. However, Rajadhipathi wants the gemstone for himself and gets Eesa to retrieve it, without revealing anything about it. He also asks his son, Prince Jayavardhan, to look over the entire operation and kill him and his revolutionary group after they successfully retrieve it. Eesa successfully retrieves it from the Britishers and kills Riley, who was also involved in stealing the gemstone and was responsible for the massacre that Eesa was part of during his time in the army. However, Eesa takes the gemstone and absconds to Ceylon as he realises Rajadhipathi's plan. A flashback shows Eesa and Sengolan's mother, Pechaiamma, dying due to injuries caused by the attack during the festival when Sengolan arrived. The Britishers torture and kill some of the villagers to reveal Eesa's whereabouts, under General Andrew Wandy's orders. The following morning, he returns to the village with the gemstone and attacks and kills the British soldiers who torture and kill the villagers, while chasing away Wandy and his men. The Indian soldiers drop everything and surrender to Eesa. One soldier, Muthuswami, tells Eesa that Wandy will return with an army of 700 soldiers from Veeravanallur. Velmathi and the others safeguard the villagers and kill Rajadhipathi, while Eesa kills Jayavardhan. The villagers finally enter the temple, as they were forbidden by Rajadhipathi's family for 600 years. Eesa and the revolutionaries attack the army and are later assisted by Rafiq and Sengolan, who is revealed to be still alive and part of another revolutionary group in the Andaman Islands. Eesa and the revolutionaries, along with Rafiq and Sengolan, defeat the British army and safeguard the village. Sengolan tells Eesa that he felt bad as he realized that he is responsible for their mother's death, but Eesa denied as they realized if their mother would still be alive. The gemstone is instilled back in the temple, and the British Empire issues a heavy bounty on Eesa, Rafiq, Sengolan, and the other revolutionaries. In the epilogue, Rajadhipathi's daughter, Princess Shakunthala, learns about Velmathi's involvement in her father and brother's death from a sly Kanagasabai. She sets out to exact vengeance on her, Eesa, Rafiq, Sengolan, and the other revolutionaries.