Its movies like Ice that confirm that Agathiyan's Kaadhal Koattai definitely was a trendsetter. Its been more than 5 years since it was released but we still have movies that rip off the whole story or parts of it. Indru Mudhal recently copied the second half and Ice does exactly the same thing by having lovers look for each other. Unfortunately, director Radhuraj's handling adds nothing new to the familiar story.

Ashok(Ashok), who has studied catering, has already been fired from 50 jobs since he is searching for a job that he actually likes to do. He is always at the receiving end of his father's tirades while his uncle's daughter Madhavi(Haripriya) dreams of marrying him. On a trip to Germany with an industrialist Viswanathan(Mouli), he runs into Anjali(Priyanka Trivedi), a girl who yearns for love and affection from her father(Devan), a rich businessman. The two fall in love but are forced to separate without exchanging information about each other and try to look for each other back in Chennai.

Initially, Ashok's character seems a little like Srikanth's in Parthiban Kanavu since he is unhappy in his job and seems idealistic about finding a job he likes to do. But the similarities end there. While Parthiban Kanavu used that character trait to define his outlook on life and drive the rest of the story, Ice abandons it completely and lunges into a love story. Silly events like Mouli asking Ashok to accompany him to Germany after a couple of meetings ensure that the movie has no semblance of realism while Priyanka Trivedi's characterization of the daughter yearning for his busy father's affection is nothing new.

Unfortunately things don't get better even after the movie shifts to romance. Based on Ashok's reactions to Haripriya clearly stating her interest in marrying him, we are led to believe that Ashok too reciprocates her affections. So its an unpleasant surprise when he falls in love with Priyanka. Maybe the filmmaker was going for the surprise element but the end result is that Ashok's character takes a big hit. He earns our dislike even more by keeping silent, inspite of Haripriya's declarations of love to him, even after returning from Germany.

With Ashok and Priyanka looking for each other and having close misses, the movie becomes a retread of Kaadhal Koattai once they get back from Germany. There are the requisite slow motion shots as the two have some close misses but the director drains all the interest by dragging things on for too long. There are a few too many of these misses and pretty soon, we just want them to meet and get it over with. There are a couple of unexpected developments but they hardly have an impact on the story.

Ashok is definitely one of the less promising among new heroes. His inexpressive face lets him down at important moments. Priyanka Trivedi proved in Raja and Kaadhal Sadugudu that she has an expressive face and confirms it here. Though never given a chance to be cute due to the uninteresting romance, she manages to express her dismay at not hearing from Ashok well enough. Haripriya earns our sympathy as the loser in the love triangle more because of her characterization than her performance. Vivek has a few chucklers but the majority of his comedy track is a loser.