The villagers of Suriyakudi are resigned eke out a living robbing travellers passing by their village. When the grandson of the village bigwig is born, the villagers hope that he will be Suriyakudi's savior and name him Ayyanar. As a young boy, Ayyanar gets his cousin Sivanandi thrown in prison after Sivanandi kills his own father for money. A grown-up Ayyanar(Vijayakanth) fights for the village's improvement while being pursued by his uncle's daughter Susan. Meanwhile, Sivanandi(Sampath) is also back from prison and killing Ayyanar is his only goal.

Its always an uneasy alliance when a director whose strength is character-driven storytelling works with a hero who has to stick to a certain image and whose movies have to stick to a certain formula. Bagyaraj, who worked with Vijayakanth in Sokka Thangam , had enough experience to make the combination work to a certain extent but Samuthirakani, who is only one movie old, has not been able to make the alliance work. His previous effort, Unnai Saranadainthen, was a character-based story that had some unexpected thriller overtones. But here he has succumbed to Vijayakanth's image and delivered a run-of-the-mill Vijayakanth movie.

Even a formulaic Vijayakanth movie, if made well, can be entertaining. But Neranja Manasu fails on that front too. Vijayakanth here doesn't seem to do much for the villagers till the very end. This is painfully obvious since he himself is always clean and well-dressed and drives a modern vehicle while the villagers surrounding him look poor and haggard. There is the occasional good deed, like supporting a girl's higher education and talking to the authorities on amenities for the village but for the most part, the villagers seem none the better for having Vijayakanth in their midst. And the praises they heap on him only grows as the movie progresses, until they pretty much call him a God!

Surprisingly, the movie doesn't fare much better on the personal front either. Susan pursues Vijayakanth aggressively enough but their encounters are rarely interesting and consisting of scenes like Vijayakanth driving his bike blindfolded(!) and Susan bumping into the town drunkard as she runs. Mahima for a while appears to be creating a love triangle but then disappears as abruptly as she appeared. Sampath proves to be all talk and no action. His plans for coming face to face with Vijayakanth, like wasting the townfolk's grain, are elaborate but silly and once he selects Mansur to wed Susan, the movie becomes completely predictable.

Vijayakanth looks more presentable in the shirt-dhoti outfit, that suits his girth better. Performance-wise, its the same Vijayakanth we see, uttering punchlines and knocking off bad guys with ease. Susan looks mature and so seems a good match for Vijayakanth. Sampath makes a good villain and is quite aggressive. Ilavarasu performs well in a serious role.