The students of Pachayappas college and Loyola college are rivals, especially when it comes to catching the attention of the girls of the neighboring women's college. Karthik(Vineeth), a student of Pachayappas, is poor while Arun(Abbas), a student of Loyola, is a rich boy. Initially at loggerheads with each other, they soon become thick friends. But Divya(Tabu), their common friend, captures both their hearts and this once again causes friction between them. Finally they decide to let Divya decide who among them she wants to marry.

Kathir does a nice enough job of portraying both friendship and love in a touching manner. The incidents leading to the development of friendship between Vineeth and Abbas and also between Tabu and both of them(individually) are quite believable. Vineeth's act, which makes her understand his seriousness in love is a little overdone but effectively picturised. Same goes for Abbas' act which saves her life. He is also successful in extending the suspense regarding the resolution of the love triangle. Just when we think its clear as to which of the two get Tabu, he throws in another turn that muddles the issue once again. And the climax caps off this issue very nicely.

Kathir selects two real-life names for the colleges and this adds a realistic touch to the proceedings initially. But the realism is gone once we see the sets for the two colleges. For the art director, the intent seems to have been to spend money lavishly and not make the scenes seem realistic. The sets, with the glass buildings and cluster of foreign brand names and high-tech feel, look like rejects from a Hollywood science fiction movie!

Kaadhal Desam is another addition to the list of tamil movies that portray tamil colleges(and its inhabitants) in a degrading way. Seeing this movie one wouldn't be blamed if one came to the decision that college guys never attended any classes and spent all their time milling around the local women's colleges, indulging in vulgar acts. We don't have a single scene of Abbas or Vineeth inside their college. And in the one scene where Tabu attends a class, we see her teacher berate the girls for not being in love since none of them writes good poems!

Abbas stirred up quite a craze among the fairer sex in Tamil Nadu with this movie. He does quite a good job considering its his debut, showing some nice dance steps and not looking too awkward in the couple of emotional scenes. Vineeth fits his role. Tabu looks very pretty but has a mature look when compared to both the heroes. SPB has fun in his role of the friendly father who enjoys his position of respect owing to being the father of a pretty girl. Vadivelu has some funny lines and sequences(like his style of boarding and getting down from buses) but these scenes don't exploit their full potential solely because of his raving and ranting with no subtlety whatsoever. With Vadivelu hogging the limelight, Chinni Jayanth is surprisingly subdued. Producer K.T.Kunjumon makes an appearance as a police officer in one scene.

A.R.Rehman comes up with a nice mix of melodious and catchy tunes for the hit soundtrack. Mustafa Mustafa... captured the imagination of listeners and was enormously popular. Enai Kaanavillaye... is soulfully rendered by SPB. Rest of the songs don't reach the level of these two but both Kalloori Saalai... and Hello Doctor... have some nice, fast beats. Photography is beautiful in the outdoor shots with a couple of silhoutte shots being well shot. The shot of a car falling over the Madras flyover is also very well done.