Director Rama.Narayanan is a man on a mission. To provide gullible viewers with as many variations of Amman as they can take. And as long as there are illiterate people who get involved in the movie and fall at the feet of the actress portraying the goddess, thereby making the movie a box-office success, he will continue churning out such movies. First he gave us Rajakali Amman which had Ramya Krishnan as the deity. Now its Meena's turn to go godly as Paalayathu Amman.

Asureswaran(Saranraj) is the representative of evil,whose aim is to establish the reign of the devil on earth. He even destroys a Hindu religious head who prophecies that a baby who will destroy Asureswaran is being born. Though she does not know it, Savitri(Divya Unni) is carrying this baby. Savitri accidentally drops her baby into the 'hundi' in the temple of Paalayathu Amman but takes it back inspite of the temple authorities telling her that anything that falls into the 'hundi' belongs to Amman. The deity(Meena) then follows her around, asking Savitri to return to her whats due.

When a scan of the baby in Divya Unni's womb shows up as a trident on the monitor, we know exactly how seriously we are supposed to take this movie. And seen with that frame of mind, Paalayathu Amman has a chance of being entertaining. Saranraj looks ridiculous in his bright orange coat with a logo of the devil on the front and back and the numbers 666 shaved on his head. Rama.Narayanan achieves the opposite of what he probably intended with the storyline of the goddess following Savitri and pestering her to give up her child. These sequences with Meena appearing as a flower seller, a 'karagam' dancer and even a school headmistress seem silly and just make her seem ineffective.

The graphics are a noticeable improvement over Rajakali Amman(though that is not saying much considering the awful special effects in that movie). The huge skeleton whom Saranraj summons in the end is watchable and the scene after Divya Unni throws the idol into the river has some good graphics, apart from the rousing music and dance. But the obvious use of bad graphics in simple scenes like the appearance of a ring of fire around Ramki is rather mystifying. The final assault of the goddess on Saranraj is also done with graphics and the goddess figure's Matrix-style freeze-frame in the air before stabbing him is probably the funniest scene in the movie.

As in movies like Budget Padmanabhan, the saving grace of this movie is once again Vivek. It is ironic that in a movie which portrays the strength of God through amateurish miracles, Vivek's comedy routines skewer the blind faith of people - the very factor that Rama.Narayanan is banking on to make the movie a success. Be it his spoofing of Yaagavaa Munivar's appearances on television, his verbal sparring with another religious man or people's belief in numerology, Vivek's sharp dialogs pounce on them vigor while making us both laugh and think. His imitation of Sivaji's famous courtroom monologue in Paraasakthi is a brilliant piece of work - both in the script and its delivery - that deserves accolades.

Meena tries to fit into the role of Amman but her soft face and features work against her, especially in scenes where she is supposed to radiate anger. Ramya Krishnan definitely was better. Divya Unni is caught in a confusing character and it's never clear whether she believes in Amman or not. Ramki has some funny one-liners about Divya's devotional acts. Senthil is given no chance of comedy in the serious role of a devotee who gets the goddess to stay in his house. S.A.Rajkumar digs into the common bag of 'Songs for devotional movies' for his tunes.