Thamizh is one more in the long list of recent movies featuring a rowdy as hero. But it differs from earlier entrants like Gemini and Red in that it doesn't glorify rowdyism by glamourising the life of the hero. Instead it shows us how a regular youth with his own dreams is caught up in the whirlpool of violence and how it pulls him in inspite of the best efforts of him and the people who care for him.

Thamizh(Prashanth) leads a happy life with his mother(Manorama) and sister-in-law(Urvasi). His brother(Livingston) is working in Kuwait and Thamizh too dreams of joining him there. Meenakshi(Simran), their tenant and Thamizh fall in love. When the goons of Periyavar(Ashish Vidyarthi) injure Thamizh's niece, he stops Periyavar's car on the road and questions him. He then beats up one of Periayavar's goons when insulted. This makes him Periyavar's target and though he tries to withdraw from the violence, he is forced to join forces with Rathnam(Nasser), Periyavar's sworn enemy.

This is one of the few movies in recent times where a lot of importance seems to have been attached to the script. Inspite of the flimsy story and routine screenplay where a youth grows to be a 'dada', the dialogs elevate the quality of the movie and make it very enjoyable. While the proverbs made up by Urvasi and her comments directed at Vadivelu are funny, the utterances by Nasser and some of the exchanges between Prashanth and Simran are all very sharp and practical. Though the title Thamizh simply refers to Prashanth(leading to some jingoistic lines like "Thamizh cannot be destroyed!", etc.), there is a lot of importance to the language itself throughout the movie.

The characters have been developed in a realistic fashion and as a result, we come to care for them as the movie proceeds. We sympathise with Prashanth as his dreams collapse and we understand Livingston's frantic efforts to send him packing to Kuwait(director K.S.Ravikumar has a nice little cameo as a police officer here). Though several stock Tamil cinema cliches (Prashanth's anger after Ponnambalam talks ill of his sister-in-law, the incident that leads to his final outburst, his lies to make Simran dissociate herself from him, etc.) exist, the sentiments during these scenes aren't overblown.

Though we can easily predict that Prashanth will gang up with Nasser against Ashish Vidyarthi, his initial attempts to resist this before finally giving in adds some reality to the proceedings. But the movie tends to turn familiar after this with chases, murders and revenge. Livingston and co.'s frantic efforts to hide the truth from Prashanth to ensure he makes his trip is believable and though we know what is going to happen, the suspense and tension during this sequence are palpable. The climax is predictable and resolves things a little too cleanly.

This movie probably marks Prashanth's maturity into a real actor and he slips into the rowdy role a lot better than he did in Appu. He has brought out very well his inability to avoid turning into a rowdy and looks believable as the rowdy. Simran comes up with another good performance with her initial chirpiness being very endearing. Nasser eclipses Ashish Vidyarthi with his performance as the Tamil proverb-quoting dada while Livingston and Urvasi make a believable affectionate brother and sister-in-law pair. As usual, Vadivelu raises lots of laughs whenever he is at the receiving end of the caustic comments from Urvasi and Prashanth. Bharadwaj comes up with some nice tunes and the song sequences are good though they dont really stand out.