Madurey(Vijay), a vegetable vendor in a market in Chennai, lives with his mother(Seetha) and two sisters. Anitha(Rakshita), who arrives at the market to do a project(!), falls for Madurey and eventually earns his love too. But the arrival of a policeman who recognizes Madurey leads to the opening up of his past. He was a district collector in Madurai and had gone up against the local don(Pasupathy). Circumstances led to him being charged with killing his own assistant Sushila(Sonia Agarwal).

Madurey's first and second halves are completely disjoint and are linked in a manner that is too incredulous even for a masala movie! Its basic story of a popular district collector disguising himself as a vegetable vendor and then dancing and fighting on the streets is so ridiculous that it is always in the background and keeps the movie completely out of the realm of reality.

The first half of Madurey pretty much includes everything that goes into making a bad movie. It is boring, vulgar and moves along aimlessly, padded with repetitive fights and periodic song sequences. It is obvious within a few reels that the first half is going to simply be a filler and that the story would start only with a flashback. The lack of a strong villain makes Vijay's heroics boring and neither the romance or sentiments are solid enough. While the antics of both Rakshita and Tejasri are crude and vulgar, the sentiments are overblown(like the ridiculous scene where Vijay 'cures' his mute sister). Its only the anticipation of the flashback and hope that it will makes things better keeps us in our seats until the intermission point.

Though Vijay, with his diminutive frame, isn't a convincing fit in the role of a collector, the second half is a marked improvement over the first. Vijay and Pasupathy prove to be a good match and the meetings between them bristle with energy. Vijay's actions, like his way of dealing with the bus owners during the bandh, are exciting, though his MO of handling fire with fire reminds one of Saamy sometimes (I almost expected him to shout "Naan Collector Illa, Porukki" at the end of some key sequences!). The romance is quite muted but is still a welcome change from the loudness of the earlier romances. The movie comes back to the present for a climax that had me scratching my head as to what exactly Pasupathy's plan was.

Vijay, as usual, is not strained beyond the usual dancing and stunts. Rakshita seems to be aiming at replacing Kiran, with her flabby figure and atrocious dresses, especially in the song sequences. Sonia Agarwal, on the other hand, seems a little too depressed and has a perennial downcast look. As in Ottran , Tejasri has a few scenes apart from a song sequence but simply adds to the vulgarity. Pasupathy manages to be impressive inspite of the cliched role while Vadivelu struggles to make us laugh. Vidyasagar does the needful, tuning some catchy numbers. The slow Kanden Kanden... is the best of the lot but the duppanguthu-style songs like Machan Peru Madurey..., Ice Katti and Elanthapazham... definitely get our feet tapping.