Bala(Srikanth) arrives in Madras from Coimbatore, looking for a job to support his mother and two unmarried sisters. Having lost his bag and certificates in the train, he ends up sleeping by the roadside until a kindhearted shop owner(Haneefa) takes pity on him. On the shop owner's recommendation, he moves into a house with two other young men(Sukran and Vaiyapuri). Both men have their eyes on Malar(Trisha), who lives opposite their house. Scared that Bala would snatch Malar from under their noses, the two devise various plans to get him into trouble and one such plan even results in Bala getting roughed up by Malar's brother. But his friends, who arrive in town looking for him, reveal the truth about his past.

Mixing comedy and villainy works some times but this is definitely not one of those times. As a couple of guys scheming to get Srikanth out of the picture, Sukran and Vaiyapuri struggle to give shape to their characters. They vacillate between being silly and villainous and ultimately, they don't make us laugh, outraged at their acts or sympathise with them. With them occupying a major portion of the screen time during the first half, viewing often becomes a tiring experience. The failure of their plans to oust Srikanth raises a few rare chuckles a couple of times.

Barring those two, most of the characters in the movie are good. But their goodness and affection towards Srikanth are too cinematic to be believable. There seems to be no reason for Hanifa or his daughter to get attached to Srikanth so quickly and the scenes portraying their affection are overdone in true cinematic fashion.

After being a predominantly light-hearted movie, Manasellaam turns heavy more than two-thirds of the way in. But the turn into sentiments, apart from releasing us from the Vaiyapuri-Sukran duo, is surprisingly effective. The movie takes some surprising turns that bely our expectations. The director, unsuccessful at comedy, turns out to be more successful in handling the heavier scenes. The climax is quite different and has a strong impact though it also ends up showing Srikanth in a selfish light.

Srikanth shows confidence and handles the heavier portions of the role adroitly too. Trisha looks thin and pretty but has ways to go before she can be considered competition to the Simrans and Snehas. Vaiyapuri and Sukran are hampered by the characterization of their roles while Shyam Ganesh is inconsequential. Ilaiyaraja's punctuates his background score with several periods of silence. Songs are melodious but not particularly remarkable.