Thai Porandhaachu offers a good mix of laughs and emotions. The scenes blend in well with each other and neither seems out-of-place. There are both laugh-out loud moments and scenes which touch our hearts. Ofcourse some of the jokes fall flat and there are scenes where the sentiments seem overwrought. But overall, director Kalaimani can claim reasonable success with both portions in this, his first film.

Geetha(Kousalya) arrives from Coimbatore to meet her boyfriend Aravind(Karthik). But he has moved and having no place to stay until she meets him again, she is directed to house broker Giri(Prabhu). Realising that he cannot find a house suiting her tiny budget but unwilling to let go of the commission, he rents out a portion of his own house to her. But the real owner of the house is Dharma(Ponnambalam), the local rowdy who is in jail. Giri hides a lot of sadness in his past. He had thought the world of his sister's daughter and when trying to fulfil a simple wish of hers, had inadvertently caused the death of another boy and had been sent to jail. He has been saving up to ask for her hand at the right time. When he finds out that Geetha is his sister's daughter and she has run away from home solely to avoid marrying him, he decides to sacrifice his love and get her married to Aravind.

The director has designed sequences with enough comic potential initially. Plot devices like Prabhu fibbing to Ponnambalam that he is married to Kousalya and proving it without Kousalya's knowledge help prevent the viewer from being bored. Small things like using this fact later in the movie and not extending the suspense in the Karthik-Kousalya meeting in the library beyond the irritating-point also enhance the director's reputation. Emotions come to the fore once Prabhu learns about Kousalya's story. Prabhu brings back memories of Ponmanam with his sacrifices and his strong performance infuses life into these scenes.

Vivek takes care of the laughs. He plays second fiddle to Prabhu initially and these portions have a few scattered laughs like his singing of Oruvan Oruvan Mudhalali... in Japanese. But he comes into his own later and the series of events where he ends up being stripped each time brings down the house. The scene where Venniradai Moorthy and co. go to see Karthik's sister and the 'ghostly' trick he plays on them is also clever and funny. But Chinni Jayanth, who was so funny in movies like Kanave Kalaiyaadhe and Poopparikka Varugirom, is wasted in an inconsequential role with no oppurtunity.

The movie has one of the most unique villains in recent times. Ponnambalam, who usually appears in a single scene and gets thrashed by the hero, has quite a meaty role. He is a villain who never touches married women and even gets angry when he sees Kousalya, who he thinks is married to Prabhu, with some other man. The scene where he advises Prabhu not to get emotional before slowly breaking the news of having seen Kausalya with another man is hilarious. The character is an unusual combination of villainy and comedy.

Prabhu, who is seeing a rejuvenation in his career with hits in both Tirupati Ezhumalai Venkatesa and Tirunelveli , delivers in a role that seems tailor-made for him. Though he doesn't exactly look like hero material with his girth and an obvious wig, he makes up for it with his performance. He internal pain is evident on his face when he watches Kousalya's face light up on hearing that the man she is supposed to wed is dead. Karthik has a big role considering that its supposed to be a cameo. He holds his own against Prabhu in the climax. Kousalya needs to reduce her makeup. She seems uncomfortable in the initial, light portions but shows her mettle in the climax. Deva's songs are definitely not hummable and the two group songs are plain vulgar and irritating.