Movies in a different genre, like period films, are quite rare in Tamil cinema and so it is possible to overlook certain missteps in the film when one does get made. But that task becomes difficult when the film itself feels like one giant misstep and that's the case with Uliyin Osai. Poor production values doom the film right from the start and the stilted acting and horrendous comedy further compound our misery.

The King(Sarathbabu) wants to build a temple that incorporates sculptures depicting all the poses and expressions of dance and he hires a famed sculptor Iniyan(Vineeth) to do the work. Iniyan needs a model for the sculptures but he is dissatisfied with all the dancers brought before him, including the most famous dancer(Akshaya) in the land. His quest ends when he sees Samundi(Keerthi Chawla), the granddaughter of a woman who tends to goats. As he works on his sculptures with Samundi as his muse, he finds that he is slowly falling for her.

It is not easy to make a period film and it takes a talented team to transport us to the relevant time period and involve us enough so that we see the characters rather than the actors behind them. Uliyin Osai definitely hasn't been put together by that kind of a team. The sets and the costumes don't have the richness or grandeur that we usually associate with period films and almost none of the the actors are convincing in their roles. The film's screenplay isn't strong enough to make us overlook these external factors either. It is laughable to see Vineeth reject all the dancers and then choose Keerthi Chawla on the basis of seeing her hop and skip behind the goats and the few sculptures we do get to see look scary rather than divine.

The film, for the most part, is a love triangle disguised as a period film. The magnitude of Vineeth's work or the King's expectations about it are never conveyed(even the one scene where Vineeth actually works is used as an excuse for Keerthi to further stoke his romantic feelings) as Vineeth falls for Keerthi and Akshaya falls for Vineeth. The usual misunderstandings and mistaken identities happen here too as they carry their feelings, blissfully unaware of the feelings of the objects of their affection.

As always, the director resorts to a comedy track and songs to pad the running time. The comedy track involves 'Ganja' Karuppu, Manorama and goat droppings and yes, it is as awful as it sounds. And we know the director is out of ideas, even for fillers, when he resorts to a dance competition between Manorama and 'Kovai' Sarala.

Uliyin Osai offers a surprise towards the end. Not only does the surprise come too late to infuse any energy into the proceedings, it makes no sense whatsoever and simply paints the participants in the big plan as idiots. The feelings experienced by a main character after this surprise and the action employed by the character as a result of those feelings don't seem very sensible either and so the reactions we have are very different from what the director probably intended.

Vineeth was probably chosen for that one song sequence where he faces off against Akshaya. Keerthi Chawla joins the list - undoubtedly headlined by Vindhya in Sangamam - of actresses who are unsuited to play Bharatanatyam dancers. Many of her so-called dance poses look really comical. Akshaya comes off better though that's not saying much. Actors like Sarathbabu and 'Thalaivaasal' Vijay play their roles just as they would play them in any regular, present-day film. Ilaiyaraja comes up with a couple of melodious duets.