Arun(Robert) is the leading, most-sought-after dance master in movies and Divya(Kanika), an aspiring actress, is his student. Her refusal to take part in a group dance angers him and he's biding his time for revenge. Kutty(Kutty), a one-legged man, helps out Divya's family by doing small chores around the house. Initially derisive of his love for dance, Divya is amazed when she sees him actually dance and tries to find him an avenue to expose his talent.

It is impossible to watch Dancer and not be amazed at what Kutty does. He has lost his entire right leg but has overcome the handicap to be completely self-reliant every minute of the day. And he has gone above and beyond that to actually dance! Many of his actions and dance moves would be difficult for a even regular human being and so, seeing him perform them while standing on one leg is almost surreal. His looks reminded me of Atul Kulkarni. He is not exactly a good actor and there is a lot of room for improvement but that thats not what he was brought on board for anyway.

The movie with the closest parallels to Dancer is Mayuri, which was a similar story of a handicapped girl learning to dance with an artificial leg. That was a very emotionally involving movie that made us sympathise with its heroine Sudha Chandran. Though that was partly due to the movie being based on a true story, the screenplay also played an important part in moving us and that is a lesson the director here has not learned. The focus in Mayuri was on its heroine and we were with her all the way as she lost her leg and then painstakingly learned to dance again. Here the focus is on other characters and storylines initially and we don't even see Kutty dance until after the intermission. Even then, we see him dance right away and never understand how he learned to dance and the trouble he went through. So he remains more a spectacle, a special attraction rather than a real person.

A few bad apples are necessary in any movie for us to focus our dislike upon. But almost everyone in this movie seems to lack the basic decency possessed by most human beings when it comes to treating handicapped people. Though still unnecessary, I can atleast overlook Robert pushing Kutty to the ground in his class. He is the villain and needs to earn the audience's hatred. But is it really necessary for everyone in the class to laugh when Kutty falls? Kutty easily earns our sympathy because of his handicap. So its not really necessary for KR to lay it on so thick.

The movie has its heart in the right place as Kutty begins helping the handicapped all over the world after he becomes famous. But it should have simply stuck to these storylines. Instead, it turns into a regular masala flick as Robert has Kanika kidnapped and Kutty saves her. Stunt sequences in Tamil films are already in the realm of fantasy. While they fit into movies where we are not expected to take anything seriously anyway, they rob Dancer of the sense of realism that was evident until then. While we are still amazed at Kutty's moves, the seriousness of the movie is lost.

Kanika looks pretty in a homely kind of way. Robert overacts all the way. His face is almost constantly changing and he uses his exaaggerated dance expressions even when talking normally. Chinni Jayanth is enormously irritating as Robert's eununch-like secretary. Manivannan, as a harried film producer, gets to take a few shots at actors, actresses and directors.