With the success of Aanandham, family-oriented stories are in vogue again in Kodambakkam. With romance proving to be ever-popular and a staple ingredient, director Ezhil inserts both into his movie about the romance between the two youngsters in two large families and how the problem between them leads to a test of the families' friendship. It is an extravagant production that is fairly entertaining, though it reminds us of other recent movies at several points.

Chinna(Ajith) and Chella(Jyotika) are the youngest in two families that live next door to each other and have been the thickest of friends over three generations. Just when the two realise that they are in love with each other, their mutual friend Karna(Yugendran), who has his eyes on Chella, convinces Chinna that Chella is in love with him. The very fact that Chinna believed this leads Chella to break up with him and this eventually leads to the two families breaking up.

As in Poove Unakkaaga, the director has been successful in portraying the jolly atmosphere existing between two large families that have a lot of fun together. Their closeness is brought out well through several incidents and memories and many of their get-togethers make a strong case for joint families. Jyotika's anger at her father seems too extreme but it sets the stage for her stubborness later in the movie. Ofcourse the director also creates several superfluous characters for the sake of making the families large. A particularly sad case is Ajith's sister whose husband remains in Dubai for the entire length of the movie, barely utters a word and has absolutely no impact on the story.

Unlike Piriyaadha Varam Vendum, the friendship between Ajith and Jyotika is not overdone and the way it slowly turns into love is sweet and subtle. The tricks Yugendran plays to convince Ajith of Jyotika's love are devious and in many cases, he makes us wonder about how he is going to pull off his next act. The contrivances needed to make his plans work don't seem too atrocious and neither Ajith and Jyotika are forced to do anything blatantly stupid solely to keep the story moving.

For two families that have carried on a close friendship for three generations, the break seems too sudden and extreme. While Jyotika's reason and her stubborn refusal to listen to Ajith are acceptable, the quickness of Shayaji Shinde and his son to raise their hands against Sivakumar seems artificial. Sentiments dominate the movie from this point onwards with emotions crossing the line between natural and artificial at more than a few points. The acts and dialogs of Nagesh and V.S.Raghavan with one of Nagesh's dresses seem particularly silly. But a few dialogs from various quarters, like their college professor and the man who irons their clothes, are sharp and sensible.

Ajith drops of his action persona from recent movies to enact a loverboy role. He is cute in the scene where he practices his proposal in front of his motorcycle and impresses us when agonizing over Jyotika's love for Yugendran. Jyotika, as always with an expressive face, is a bundle of energy. Yugendran, son of singer 'Malaysia' Vasudevan, proves that villainy can also be accomplished without raving and ranting and is successful in making us dislike him.Sivakumar is solid as always but Shayaji Shinde, who was so good in Bharathi, seems to struggle here. Vivek's comedy track is not as extensive as the ones in recent movies but he raises a few chuckles as always with some of his comments.

The movie almost qualifies as a musical considering the number of songs, especially in the first half. Thankfully, Vidyasagar comes up with some catchy numbers and Vairamuthu's lyrics add some pep to many of them. The locales and colorful costumes are also captured well by the camera making the songs easy to sit through. Yukhta Mookhey..., where the Miss World makes an appearance, is helped by some fun lyrics in praise of her though the sequence itself is inserted rather awkwardly and Yukhta's lack of dancing ability is painfully obvious. Thaalaattum Kaatre Vaa... is gloriously picturised with Ajith's jeep travelling alongside the train and the shots where the two of them dance in front of an oncoming train are cool.