Pachamuthu school is in dire straits, with the owner itching to shut it down for good and no money for even basic amenities. Kokila(Sneha), who studied in the school and whose grandfather started the school, comes up with an idea to invite the school's alumni, hoping that they would donate money after seeing the school's state. One of their best hopes is Vetrivel(Narain), who was Kokila's classmate and is now the well-respected collector of Kancheepuram. So Kumarasamy(Thankar Bachan), Vetrivel's best friend when they were in school, heads to Kancheepuram to convince Vetrivel to come back to the village. But Vetrivel, who has some bad memories of his last days in the village, is reluctant to return.

The schools in our villages have served as the setting for some very funny sequences in films like Mundhaanai Mudichu and Autograph . Even Thankar Bachan portrayed school as a riotously fun place in Azhagi. But he doesn't succeed in doing the same here. Maybe he didn't want to seem repetitive but the activities in this particular pallikkoodam seem surprisingly subdued. In fact, while the usual way is to show the school as a fun place where the kids have a blast, the school here isn't shown as a fun place at all. In fact there is even a song where the kids are rounded up by their parents and marched off screaming and crying to school. Some wisecracks and mischief by Kumarasamy apart, Pachamuthu school is a very sober place indeed.

More unfortunate is the fact that the lack of fun at the school isn't replaced by something more interesting. The focus is more on Vetrivel's academic successes and the hints of an adolescent romance blooming in the hearts of Vetrivel and Kokila. While the former isn't particularly interesting, the latter isn't handled with the kind of finesse needed to make it believable or sweet. The two share some coy glances and mild smiles but they are not very effective.

Getting the more well-off alumni to donate to the betterment of the school is actually a sound idea. Most people have fond memories of their years in school and these memories usually go a long way in making them loosen their purse-strings (my university in the US actually had a session where students cold-called alumni from a list and asked them for donations). So the segments where the old students, from all walks of life, think back to their time in school after receiving the invitations seem real and believable. But not much time is spent on this with the movie focussing more on Narain and Sneha. While their past is substantial enough to make the depth of their emotions valid, things feel quite stretched out with Thankar employing the usual, frustrating tactic of the characters not speaking out at the most logical times.

While Thankar Bachan is usually very critical and vocal about masala and hero-centric films, he himself has been guilty of using item numbers in his own movies. While there is no real item number here, a remixed old MGR number picturized on Gana Ulaganathan is annoying, silly and completely unnecessary.

Narain plays his role with conviction, whether solving problems as a collector or sad over his past with Sneha. But he just cannot do cute and comes off looking silly in the scene where he tries to romance Sneha. Sneha has only little screen time and is her usual natural self in her scenes. After the disaster that was Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy, Thankar Bachan seems to have abandoned the hope of playing hero. He is more of a comedian here, playing the naieve, rustic Kumarasamy though he does give himself the meatiest and most interesting role. Director Seeman, who last directed Thambi and also appeared in Pori , isn't required to do much as he plays a director onscreen too. Shreya Reddy, who seems to be landing roles very different from her RJ persona, does well though her segment is almost totally unnecessary.