The story is ofcourse familiar to all of us. Queen Kunti abandons her first-born, who is then adopted by a charioteer Adhirathan and named Karnan by a sage. Karnan is known for his generosity and never says 'No' to anyone asking him for something. When he is insulted at a public archery competition for being from a lowly class, Duryodhana(Asokan) makes him king of one of his lands and embraces him as a friend. He is eternally grateful for this and chooses to fight on Duryodhana's side against the Pandavas even when Kunti reveals herself to be his mother and he realises that the Pandavas are his brothers.

Karnan is the kind of character that makes for a fascinating movie and this movie does full justice to it. With his generosity and undying loyalty to his friend, Karnan is a great character and the movie succeeds in making us admire him though he was on the wrong side. The incident when Karnan as a baby hands over his jewellery to the sage wishing to cuddle him is very cute apart from telling us that his magnanimity was inborn. This characteristic ofcourse is the focus of the film with several instances to highlight it. The scene where he gives a disguised Indran what he asks for inspite of knowing his real identity and being warned against it makes us respect him.

With focus on Karnan, several of the key events familiar to us from the Mahabharat are either not seen or are mentioned just in passing. Whether this is due to time constraints or the fact that such events show some the characters in a bad light is not clear. For instance, Duryodhana is portrayed as a true friend to whom the thought of Karnan misbehaving with his wife never arises. But the game of dice, definitely Duryodhana's worst moment, is never shown. It might have been interesting to see Karnan's reaction to this event.

As in most movies during those times, the dialogs are strong and clever. Karnan's meeting with Kunti and his challenge to his father-in-law who forbids his daughter to live with Karnan after learning about his lineage are two scenes which feature nice dialogs.

Karnan's end moves us to tears. The way Dharma Dhevadhai transforms the arrows intended for him to garlands and her lament about losing her only son illustrate Karnan's greatness. As Krishna lists out to Arjuna all the factors that were in place before Karnan could be killed, we realise what a great warrior he was. The success of the characterization is evident from the fact that we dislike Karnan's enemies like Krishna and their tactics. We genuinely feel sorry for Karnan and his dilemma when Kunti asks for her two boons.

N.T.Ramarao is the perfect choice for Krishna and he brings out the playfulness of Krishna with the twinkle in his eyes. But he is also suitably serious during the Gitopadhesam and when explaining to Arjuna the reasons behind Karnan's death. Devika, as Karnan's wife and Savitri as Duryodhana's wife have quite important roles while Muthuraman's Arjuna is sidelined. The first half definitely has a little too many songs with the two songs, one when Savitri sends Devika to her parents' home and one after she comes back, being too close to each other. Iravum Nilavum... is one of the melodious ones. Ullathil Nalla Ullam... is ofcourse a classic and loaded with meaningful lyrics.