Ilango(Srikanth), a good-for-nothing youth who is being pressured by his father to set his life right, falls in love with Mano(Bhoomika) at first sight. His friend Sriram(Ajay) though, is everything Ilango is not and manages to land a job in Libya. It is a job he cannot afford to lose since he has three sisters waiting to be married. At the airport, Ilango learns with horror that Sriram and Mano are lovers and so puts his romantic feelings firmly aside. Meanwhile, Mano's mother(Rekha), who dreams of a rich lifestyle, fixes Mano's marriage to a rich suitor(Vijay Adhiraj). To save her, Ilango and Mano are forced to act as lovers and live together until Sriram returns.

The movie is little more than a mix of several earlier movies. We have the good-for-nothing hero pining silently for the heroine from Aanandha Mazhai, the hero and heroine leading a platonic life but under the same roof as in Aasaiyil Oru Kadidham and the hero falling in love with his friend's lover recent as in the recent Shah Jahan . It is to the director's credit that he manages to inject a feeling of freshness inspite of these similarities.

The movie fluctuates between the good and bad with alarming frequency whether in the characterization, dialogs or picturization of events.For instance, one can smile at the characterization of Srikanth's family, with the carefree son, the father worrying about his son's future and the affectionate mother who stands up for him. But then comes Rekha, with her overblown attitude and dialogs, who damages the director's reputation for subtle characterizations. As for dialogs, we have wonderfully written pieces like Radhika's advice to Srikanth after his disappointment and Bhoomika's explanation of why she places Srikanth above even her lover. But the naturalness of such dialogs is forgotten when none of the main characters speak up to clear up the misunderstanding during the wedding scene. The silence of Srikanth, his parents and Bhoomika is clearly a ploy to resolve a difficult knot.

The director exhibits a willingness to turn some Tamil cinema cliches on their heads and this lends a sense of unpredictability to the proceedings. The scene where Srikanth is finally prodded into action by his father's words is typical but the way it ends is unexpected and very funny. With Srikanth and Bhoomika living together while her lover is in Libya, the friend's suspicion at their relationship is the most obvious emotion(and frankly, the one that I expected) to keep the story moving but the director does not take the road more travelled. The climax is well-handled and inspite of the difficult scenario, the director manages to make all characters look good.

Vivek has another substantial track here with his usual combination of one-liners, kadi jokes and digs at politics and social issues. His comedy track has been responsible for singlehandedly rescuing movies like Majunu , which had little going for them. But his routines here sometimes threaten to overwhelm the movie and when the movie itself is interesting, that turns out to be not such a good thing. His attempts to impress his lover's father(he meets the lover through a meeting that is a nice spoof of the Vijay-Jyothika meeting in Kushi ) seemed less funny than they probably were solely because I was impatient to get back to the main story.

Debutant Srikanth looks handsome and has an engaging smile that lets his innocence and sincerity shine through. For his first movie, he doesn't show any inhibitions whether emoting or dancing and so seems like a promising debut. Bhoomika(seen earlier in Badri ) looks simple and pretty(though whether she is beautiful enough to make two people fall hopelessly in love at first sight is questionable). She has fewer opportunities to emote but doesn't ham those up. Raghuvaran and Radhika make a very likeable and believable couple while Rekha(of Kadalora Kavidhaigal fame) fits her role. Bharadwaj's tunes are vaguely reminiscent of old Hindi tunes but are pleasing to the ear nevertheless. Apple Penne... and Mottugale... are the top melodious picks while the Lawrence-Mumtaj number Suppammaa... is clearly for the front-benchers.