Koundamani was a fixture in almost all Satyaraj starrers in the early 90s and the actors' lollu worked well together to create some funny comedy tracks. But there were rumors that the two had a fall-out due to Koundamani taking credit for the success of the former's movies. Thangam brings them back together after a rather long time. The teaming works well and takes us back in time but the film's story unfortunately takes us back even further!

Thangam(Satyaraj)'s father and his partner(Mahadevan) are good friends, a fact that is disliked by the partner's wife and two sons. When Thangam insults the partner's older son Aarusamy(Shanmugaraj), he rapes Thangam's sister Bagyalakshmi, which forces Thangam to get his sister married to Aarusamy. Meanwhile, a politician(Bala Singh) sows seeds of enmity between Thangam's father and his partner.

Maybe because its been awhile since we saw Koundamani on screen, his brand of comedy is effective here. Satyaraj pretty much takes the backseat, allowing Koundamani to hog the limelight with his trademark sarcastic one-liners. Many of these comments find their mark though we do wish that there were more of the satirical variety(like his question to Satyaraj when he does the now-familiar leap over a crowd before a fight sequence) since they end up getting the most laughs. The two of them share good chemistry and trade lollu remarks freely. Ofcourse, Koundamani has a couple of sequences on his own, especially in the second half when Satyaraj moves on to more serious issues, and these don't work at all, giving us a hint of why he became less popular.

The Satyaraj-Koundamani comedy is a little old-fashioned and with Satyaraj's wife not too happy with his closeness to his sister, the movie seems to be setting up a story based on old-fashioned sentiments too. But the worst is still to come. When the movie gets to the meat of its real story, it turns completely regressive. Plot developments(like Satyaraj setting up his sister's marriage with known bad guy Shanmugarajan just because he raped her) that became outdated in the 90s rear their head and the movie begins to resemble one made in the 80s or earlier. Characters change and/or are eliminated at the drop of a hat just because of the dictates of the screenplay and the story turns into a mess.

After comedy and sentiments, the movie then turns to action as it becomes a revenge tale but this atleast gives it some focus. Satyaraj's plans show some cleverness without relying purely on brawn and keep the pace from falling to damaging levels.

Satyaraj understandably looks tired and old and is back to doing the same stuff he did in countless forgettable films before Periyaar and Onbathu Roobai Nottu. Megha Nair is stuck in a thankless role. She gets a good introduction but is soon reduced to playing a regular heroine before disappearing from the picture altogether. Koundamani makes good use of the opportunity while Mahadevan and Shanmugarajan play stereotyped characters and don't add anything new to it.