Director Dharani's last two hits Dhill and Dhool have both juiced up wafer-thin stories of an ordinary youth going up against a powerful man, with clever screenplays and lots of action. By those criteria, he is the perfect director for Gilli, a remake of Telugu blockbuster Okkadu. This film too pits its hero Vijay against a more powerful enemy and keeps us in our seats with a racy screenplay that features both brain and brawn.

Velu(Vijay), an aspiring Kabadi player, goes to Madurai to participate in one of the regional matches that will pave the way for the national championship. Muthupandi(Prakashraj), a man who wields a lot of power in Madurai, is intent on marrying Dhanalakshmi(Trisha). Vijay rescues her from him and takes her back with him to Chennai with the plan of putting her on a plane to America, where her uncle lives. But a furious Muthupandi, with his huge army of henchmen, is right on their heels.

Gilli offers further proof that Dharani has pretty much mastered the art of making the masala potboiler. With a fast pace, no unnecessary sentiments, well-mounted action sequences and a generous helping of clean comedy, Gilli is a worthy addition to the genre (though a peg less than Dharani's aforementioned two ventures). The movie never lets the pace flag. It satisfies the action buff but at the same time, is not packed with stunts and chases either. It has welcome detours into subtle comedy(through Vijay's family) and exhibits cleverness at many places.

Maybe its just me but Kabadi just doesn't offer enough to get the adrenaline flowing. The game offers too few maneuvers for the director to capture and all of these have been part of the games we have seen in movies before. So though picturised quite skilfully, the two kabadi games in the movie serve more as speedbreakers. The movie has to rely on Vijay's attempts to keep Trisha out of Prakashraj's hands and in this the movie excels. Starting off with a superbly picturised chase, the movie stays on high gear throughout, throwing in enough curveballs to avoid seeming being repetitive. The way Vijay escapes with Trisha from the huge group of Prakashraj's goons and the final dash to the airport are a couple of sequences that deserve mention for the ideas and their handling.

Vijay, as usual, has a bunch of comic sidekicks(including Dhamu in a double-pigtail hairstyle) around him. Some of their offhand comments do make us smile but for the most part, their antics are unfunny. The real laughs instead come from Vijay's interactions with his family. His frequent cover-ups and the ways he gets on his parents' good side include some nice visual moments and one-liners like the Thaipoosam bit. The parts where he hides Trisha from the others are hilarious too and many of the scenes here are choreographed smoothly.

Vijay continues his Thirumalai routine, alternating between action and low-key comedy and keeping away from sentiments of any kind whatsoever. Trisha looks very pretty, especially in her song sequences but has little to do apart from looking scared. Prakashraj energizes the typical role of the villain with his performance. His cold-heartedness even when dealing with Trisha's family is surprising and his emotional "I love you"s to her add some variety to his character (apart from evoking smiles). Ashish Vidyarthi is impressive and walks well the line between being serious and serving as the punchline to some jokes. Melody is missing in Vidyasagar's tunes but they are definitely jolly and fun. Apadi Podu... and Kokarako... are both of the foot-tapping kind. Arjunar Villu... provides the right tempo to kick off Vijay's drive and is picturised well.