Iddaru is the story of two friends Prakash Raj, the poet turned politician and Mohanlal, a promising actor. Mohan Lal plays the hero of a film of which Prakash Raj is the writer. An instant rapport is struck, both young, full of dreams an, lofty ideals, basking in the glow of the nation's new-found freedom. Both rise in their respective fields, Mohan Lal becoming an icon, with an image as the Messiah of the downtrodden, and Prakash Raj a powerful orator of grand stature, following the Party's spearhead.

When Mohan Lal decides to join politics, Prakash Raj is encouraging, but is also the first to question his motives. Thus begin the competition and acts of one-upmanship, each wary of the other, ever watchful, though on the outside still maintaining the bonhomie, layers of love and hate mingling, making their relationship difficult to fathom. Both grow and grow apart.

Mohan Lal leaves the party, forms a new one and comes to power. The passing years - five decades - witnesses each one trying to out do the other, their struggle for power, the ego superceding their friendship and their dreams. This stark, complex intriguing, relationship continues till the end. Despite lost friendships and brotherhood, in Prakash Raj’s elegy to Mohan Lal, despite the rhetoric, the poet’s admiration for his former comrade shines through.